


if i die young

by strawberry_milkbread



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fantasy, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idol Choi Yeonjun, M/M, Memory Loss, Minor Violence, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, Pining, Reincarnation, Shy Choi Soobin, Slow Burn, Student Kang Taehyun, Temporary Character Death, but only in short bursts, fr ur in for a ride, other idol cameos, refund high au, sad hueningkai, sorry hyuka :(, youtuber choi beomgyu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 63,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26368957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberry_milkbread/pseuds/strawberry_milkbread
Summary: Soobin was fading. Yeonjun was running away. Taehyun was overwhelmed. Beomgyu was slipping. And Hueningkai was lost.A freak accident suddenly ends all of their lives, and they’re all placed in Reincarnation High School, or Refund High. A place for young people whose lives were cut off too soon. With no memories of who they used to be, they must now figure out how to navigate this out of the ordinary school and pass their odd classes. If they can make it through these next three years, then they’ll be reincarnated back into their old lives. But this task would prove to be harder than they thought, especially when personal relationships, memories, and a sudden supernatural villain get in the way of their graduation.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 49
Kudos: 163





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! ＼(●~▽~●)! this was a random idea that i had and quickly became obsessed with. If you don’t know what refund high school is, it’s a webtoon by LICO (who also did the BTS one, Save Me), and it’s one of my favorite webtoons ever. It made me laugh and simp and cry (a lot) and it had the perfect bittersweet ending. I highly suggest reading it if you can (although it's not needed to enjoy this fic)! The general setting of a reincarnation high school and the classes that they take are pretty much the same as in the webtoon, except with my own details thrown in. TXT is one of my ult groups and I had so much fun writing about them, and I hope that shows when you read it!
> 
> I don’t know how often I’m gonna update now with school and everything, but I’ll do my best! I’m determined to finish it so don’t worry, if a chapter is taking longer than usual I’m probably just a little delayed.

March 4th, 2019, would become known as one of the most tragic days of the year. Multiple innocent lives were lost, hundreds of hearts broken, and thousands of tears shed all because of a misunderstanding and a stupid accident.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Choi Soobin was a loaf of rising bread about to burn. He leaned over the counter at Crown Cafe, exhaling slowly as he looked around the empty store. There was plenty of foot traffic outside, but for some reason no one even glanced in Soobin’s direction. He sighed, walking around the counter to sit down at one of the little white tables that they had set up. His giant frame splayed awkwardly across the delicate chair. Maybe it was him, maybe he was so much of a turnoff that no one wanted to even get close. Soobin looked pleadingly at the people walking by, using pity as a last resort. Maybe if people saw him sitting in here all alone, they’d feel bad enough that they’d come in and buy a biscuit just to save their conscience. 

Soobin usually would never stoop this low, but he really needed this job. He had gotten the offer through a friend of his, and the owner had been so desperate for workers that they’d hired him without needing an official interview or anything like that. But the operation was small, and with no customers they were dangerously close to having to shut down. Soobin was just a broke college student, and the idea of having to go door to door searching for another job terrified him. He was shy, soft spoken, and he hadn’t made a new friend since his first years of high school. He was content with his small circle of companions and his quiet introverted nature, but it had become a problem when it was time to deal with the real world. He did what he was told, no matter how ridiculous or unhelpful or embarrassing it was. And he never had the motivation to speak up for himself. Whenever he worked up the courage to say something, a last minute fear of his words being totally wrong would make him choke, and then he’d go silent again. 

So he let the rude stranger cut in front of him in line even though it made him late for class. He never took someone’s seat on the train even when he had a sprained ankle. He chose the nearby college that his parents wanted him to go to even though he had been dreaming about studying abroad. And as he fell more and more behind in his classes, Soobin let his family believe that he was still doing great and let the professors and students think that he was just the shy kid in the back of the class who didn’t have the courage to ask for help. 

Soobin eventually gave up on wooing people into the cafe, slumping back against the chair and gazing mindlessly out the window. At that moment, there was a sound of tires screeching and a few alarmed yells. Soobin automatically stood up, seeing a black van go whizzing down the street. Through the window Soobin saw a flash of blond hair and a pair of wide, frightened eyes. He startled, immediately recognizing who was in the car. He threw open the door and hurried onto the sidewalk just to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. It was international idol Choi Yeonjun. But he barely had time to process this realization before he caught sight of another car, this one driven by a young looking boy, his frightened expression matching Soobin’s own as the latter stood frozen, unable to move as the car came closer and closer. It was the last thing he saw before everything went back

Choi Yeonjun was a shining star about to combust. He had gone into the music industry knowing that it was going to be hard, but nothing could’ve prepared him for the fire that he was under right now. He had always been a flirtatious person, charming his way into people’s hearts. It was what had caught the attention of dozens of fans before he had even debuted. However, his overly friendly nature eventually came back to hurt him. There were always dating rumors coming and going, but for some reason one of them stuck. It followed him everywhere, fans flooding his comments when he went on vlive, tabloids publishing new declarations about his relationship status every day, and dispatch photographers never letting him have any privacy. He should’ve just hidden away for a few months and let the rumors die, but Yeonjun was never one to stand down. Plus, it was affecting the female idol on the other end as well. It would be selfish to force her to face all the heat by herself. 

He decided that he wanted to talk with her, and so they set up a private meeting for them to work out a solution. They had been so careful, but someone had managed to capture a blurry, low quality photo of them as they were hurrying out of the building and back into their cars. They had been in disguise and everything, but nothing escaped the scathing hand of the press. To make it even worse, the photo was taken at the absolute worst time. Being the gentleman that he was, Yeonjun had been shielding the other idol as best as he could, but the out of context photo made it look like he was just grabbing her. Now half of the population thought that they were dating, and the other half thought that he was harassing her. 

His fanbase slowly diminished. He deleted all of the social media apps off of his phone, knowing that when he opened them he would just see more and more hate directed towards him. But it was too late. The comments were already burned into the back of his brain, whizzing around his brain as he tried to sleep or making him feel sick the minute he got up to do any work. All Yeonjun ever wanted to do was sing, dance, and rap and just have someone listen. When he had stood on stage for his first concert, hearing his fans sing his songs back at him, he had thought that it was all worth it. The hard work, the meltdowns, the constant criticism. As long as he had fans who would stay by his side. Watching an old video of a previous concert, Yeonjun felt a wave of motivation to work harder, get through this rough patch so he could experience that ethereal moment again. But when he saw the tidal wave of cameras and press reporters waiting outside of his studio, Yeonjun reconsidered if he had made the right choice after all. No matter where he went, there was no way that he was going to be left alone. Even worse, some of them had cars and got in to follow him as he sped away from the studio. Yeonjun just needed a moment to think, to breathe. 

He hid his head in his hands, trying to hold off the inevitable mental breakdown. And so when he yelled at the driver to go as fast as they could, he didn’t notice that a few pedestrians had started crossing the street. At the sound of a scream, he looked up to see the frightened face of a red haired boy, frozen in front of their windshield. And then everything was gone.

Kang Taehyun was a crackling firework about to explode into the sky. His mind was filled with twenty different tasks that he needed to finish by the end of the day, and he was constantly running through them to make sure that he didn’t forget a single one. A cold pit of dread weighed him down. Entering college as a business major hadn’t been his first choice, nor his second or third. But he had learned a long time ago that doing everything you wanted never worked out. 

And so Taehyun dragged himself out of bed and to class each morning telling himself that he was making the right decision. He concluded that if he was going to choose a boring path like business, then he might as well be the best at it. He threw himself into his work, spending all his nights studying, taking as many classes as he possibly could, not bothering with making friends or joining a club or even sleeping at times. He felt fine. He was doing fine. In terms of academics, he was doing great. A solid 4.0 GPA, and he could explain every interworking of the current business market in a heartbeat. His professors had begun pulling him aside or emailing him about internship opportunities, always telling him about how much potential he had. 

It made Taehyun want to scream. School was one thing. He could always take a wild left turn and try something new, quit all his classes, leave behind the path he had previously chosen. But once he started working, started to consider becoming a functioning adult who had to spend the rest of their life working in business- Taehyun shut his eyes to block out the rest of the thought. Whenever he began to think too much about his future his head began to spin and he developed a sudden need to get some fresh air. 

So he took his life day by day, minute by minute. When he got dressed he didn’t think about anything other than what button down he was going to wear that day. When he walked to class he didn’t think about anything other than arriving on time. When he sat in class he didn’t think about anything other than taking notes, absorbing what the professor was saying, and making sure that he was prepared for their next assessment. With that kind of mindset, weeks could go by without Taehyun ever stopping to acknowledge the sheer patheticness of his life. 

There was always that one thought tugging at his brain, reminding him of his true dream, the thing he had considered to be his future throughout most of high school. Until one day he was met- rather slapped- with a strong dose of reality. That day had pierced his fantasy like an airplane piercing a cloud, leaving nothing but lingering puffs of air floating around him. From then on he was focused on success and success alone. Like right now, as he began to dial the number of one of the professors who had suggested an internship for him. He needed the experience, he needed the statement on his resume, otherwise he’d never be able to work his way up to a job that really mattered. And then all of this pain would have been for nothing. 

Taehyun was completely wrapped up in figuring out what he was going to tell the professor as he mindlessly crossed the street, and so he didn’t even notice the boy behind him until he was knocking Taehyun down into the asphalt. Taehyun let out an angry string of curse words, fumbling for his phone, but he was cut off by a high pitched car screech and two blinding headlights heading straight for his face.  
Choi Beomgyu was a teetering tower about to crumble. He was known better as his YouTube persona, Waeng. It had started off as a joke, as something to pass the time. Beomgyu had always been charismatic, daring, and one day he decided to capture it on camera. It grew faster than he could have ever expected, when one video of him playing a high stakes game of manhunt with his friends went viral. His channel went from a messy, unorganized hobby to a sensation across the internet that he eventually fine tuned to ensure maximum views. He did everything from day to day vlogs to cliff diving and pulling pranks on strangers. It consumed his entire life. Everything else became background noise. 

As soon as he (barely) graduated high school, Beomgyu dedicated his whole life to becoming the biggest influencer he could. He made merch, a music video, guest starred in a movie, went to teen award shows and interviews. He created his silly stage name, Waeng. It made him feel like a new person, one who didn’t have to worry about his disapproving parents or his impending future or his drifting friends. Waeng lived in the moment, concerned only with posting his next video. And there were still consequences, just as there were with any influencer. There would always be people who clicked the dislike button and left hateful comments. Parents thought that he was a bad influence on his generation. Young adults warned him that he was making a mistake, being so careless. And kids his age called him cringy, a tryhard, a bad person. But for every hater there were three fans ready to defend him. That’s all that Beomgyu had to remember when he scrolled too far into the comments or read to many tabloids. There were more people supporting him than people trying to bring him down, he told himself again and again. And he couldn’t let them have the satisfaction of hurting him, when they were just a profile on a page and he was a living, breathing, strong, stubborn person. 

But there were times when he would lay awake, staring at his ceiling, wondering if the only reason he kept going was because he didn’t want to have to deal with the guilt of letting so many people down. He knew he didn’t exactly enjoy this life all the time. But it had brought him practically everything he had, so he should be happy, right? Still, sometimes he wanted to go back and time and see who he would have become if he had put the camera down, been a normal teenager. But at the end of the day Beomgyu didn’t want to bother with hypotheticals that could never be true. He was Waeng now, and he couldn’t change that. What happened because of it was just the way it had to be. So Beomgyu threw caution and reason and worrying to the wind and leaped forward into his life. 

Just like now, as he whizzed down the sidewalk on his skateboard. It was thrilling, watching as the other pedestrians became nothing but blurs and his thoughts became consumed with nothing but fun, fun, fun. He realized that he needed to cross the street to get to his apartment, so he put his foot down to make a sharp turn into the street. He heard some cry his name- his stage name- behind him and he automatically whipped his head around to grin at them, joy filling him up as it always did whenever he encountered a fan. And so he didn’t see the red haired boy in front of him until he was practically on top of him. Beomgyu was caught between apologizing to the other individual and checking himself for injuries when his vision was filled with a speeding black van and a flash of white light.

Hueningkai was a shadow about to be disintegrated by the sun. He pressed his foot on the brake, feeling the slight jerk of the car coming to a stop. He had no idea where he was going, or why he had even gotten into the car in the first place. Well. That was sort of untrue. He knew why. He remembered sitting at dinner with his parents, feeling the heavy silence almost suffocating him. He remembered the sound of a door opening, seeing the way his parents’ faces suddenly lit up. Without even turning around he knew that it was his brother who had walked in the door. Hueningkai wished that it had been an intruder instead. With his face slightly illuminated by the red hue of the traffic light, Hueningkai sighed. Did it make him a bad person to think that way? Probably. He had suppressed those thoughts for his whole life. 

Like the time he had been dragged to his brother’s soccer game, both of his parents set on going despite the way they had given a thousand excuses to Hueningkai when he had asked why they never stayed for his games. He then had to endure over an hour of watching his brother practically dance his way around the field, going from one end of the field to the other but always passing to a teammate and letting them score the goal. He had to sit quietly and listen to his parents make conversation with the other families there, wincing every time he heard his name. His mother always ended up saying something like ‘Kai is doing well. He works really hard,’ and then quickly steering the subject matter away from her younger son. 

Maybe that should have offended Kai, but he didn’t mind. It was better for him to be forgotten then have his accomplishments over analyzed. He didn’t need other people asking why he could easily reach second in his class but not first, why he was part of ten different clubs but couldn’t seem to become the head of one, why he was able to play any position in soccer but he couldn’t make his way onto the starting lineup. To be honest, Kai didn’t know. He put in plenty of time and effort, as his mother had said. It was just the way he was built, able to function well but never enough to stand out. And so as Hueningkai watched his brother shake hands with the other team, going out of his way to compliment them with his charming smile, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit bitter. In any other family, Hueningkai’s accomplishments would have surely been celebrated, or at least acknowledged. But instead Hueningkai fell subject to simply being the second child, the side character, existing just so to compliment his brother. 

And that night, as he watched his parents abandon him at the dinner table to go see his brother, Hueningkai felt the weight of always being second place hit him harder than it had ever before. Because it was supposed to just be Kai and his parents. Because his brother was supposed to be at college. Because Kai was planning on telling his parents something that might finally get them to see him, really see him for the first time. But his brother decided to come home for the weekend, ruining Kai’s intricate plan with something that was too kind and thoughtful to hate. Unbelievable. 

Hueningkai couldn’t take it. So he threw down his silverware and napkin, pushed past his family who barely even gave him a glance as he grabbed the keys and stormed out the door. His vision was clouded with anger that he had no one to direct at. But he could still see enough to notice the speeding black van that he was about to crash head on with. Hueningkai reacted immediately, swerving out of the way. He had the right idea, but it wasn’t good enough. He ended up driving into the sidewalk, seeing the face of a terrified, purple haired pedestrian and the looming mass of a telephone pole. As he faded in unconsciousness, pain racking his head, Kai couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take for his family to realize that something was wrong.

At first, Soobin felt fine. He walked out from behind the crashed car and glanced around at the other pedestrians who were still staring at the scene, horror painted on their faces.

“What happened?” Soobin asked the nearest person. But they didn’t even look away for a second. Soobin felt disappointment hang over him. His amazing social skills at their finest. He turned to at least see what they were staring at, and did a double take at what he saw.

That was- him. His body, broken and bleeding, lying under the car. Soobin immediately glanced down at himself. He looked normal. He didn’t have the injuries that- other Soobin did. But when he raised his hand up to the light, he realized that it looked slightly translucent, like it was made of air instead of flesh. In an act of sudden rashness, he turned and tried to hit the nearby telephone pole. His hand glided right through. Soobin felt his stomach drop in shock and his eyes went back to his- dead?- body, his mouth falling open in panic. This couldn’t be right. Not even five minutes ago he was perfectly fine. He had just gone out to see what the commotion was about. And then- Soobin’s brain hurt- why couldn’t he remember? There was- a flash of headlights, screams around him, and a panicked boy’s face- 

Oh my gosh. Soobin really had died. This wasn’t some weird fever dream. He had been the victim of a car crash and died. He wouldn’t get up early tomorrow to go work at the coffee shop. He wouldn’t be able to make it to the movie that he was going to go see with his older brother, Jin, later that week. He wouldn’t be home for winter break. He would never see his family or friends again. Soobin felt himself getting choked up against his will. Why couldn’t the universe at least have given him a chance to say goodbye? Closing his eyes, Soobin took a deep breath and pictured all of the people that he cared about. May I someday get to see you again.

“Holy sh- why can’t I- what’s going on?” Soobin whipped around at the voice. He could hear the sound of the other (alive) people talking, but their voices sounded faded, like he was underwater. But this one was clear as day. He saw a boy around his age, the same one that was driving the car, looking around, evidently just as confused as Soobin had been a second ago. He had the same translucent consistency and blueish tint that Soobin did.

“We- I think we died.” Soobin said quietly, his social awkwardness still in check. He couldn’t escape it, even in death. Luckily the other boy still heard him, looking over, his eyes wide with shock.

“You- oh my gosh, did I hit you?” Soobin saw the fear and guilt in the other boy’s face, and he realized how terrible it must be to see someone that you hurt, even if it was unintentional. Even though Soobin would very much rather be alive, there was no reason to blame it on this innocent boy. It had been an accident, plain and simple, and so Soobin saw no reason to be angry. Soobin walked closer, waving his hands, putting on his best comforting look.

“No, no, it wasn’t your fault. I was distracted too.” Soobin would’ve thought that he would be more distressed if he died and became a ghost, but for some reason he was quite calm. The atmosphere felt so thin and quiet, like a lake so still it resembled glass. Despite his reassurances, the other boy still looked upset. Soobin opened his mouth, not sure what else he should say but still desperate to try, when all of a sudden they heard yelling. And the voices, once again, were too distinct to be the chatter from the living people around them. Exchanging a glance, Soobin and the other boy both went to see what was going on.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Soobin winced at the language. Looks like the calm atmosphere hadn’t carried over to everyone. He caught sight of the two other ghosts in time to see the red haired one push the other to the ground, still yelling at him. “You and your stupid skateboard- are you so self centered that you don’t look at the people in front of you?”

“There was a lot on my mind! And everyone else moved out of the way except for you, so you really shouldn’t be talking.” The black haired boy spit back, equally as heated. The red haired boy glowered back at him, ready to say something else- but then he stopped recognition on his face.

“Wait- are you that YouTuber Waeng?” As soon as he said it, Soobin realized that he recognized the black haired boy as well. His channel wasn’t really Soobin’s style, but he still knew who he was. The black haired boy- Waeng or Beomgyu, his given name- immediately changed his demeanor.

“I am. Why, are you a big fan?” His tone was teasing, almost flirty, and it only seemed to piss off the red haired boy even more.

“Absolutely not. I don’t understand why you’re so famous, you just do dumb shit and get views from your clickbait.” That seemed to hit Beomgyu hard. His gaze went steely and he stepped closer to the other boy.

“Should we stop them?” Soobin jumped at the voice from behind him. He had almost forgotten about the boy from the car.

“I- probably. What’s your name, by the way? I’m Soobin.” The other boy smiled at him, some of the fear from earlier falling away. Soobin felt his body relax a little bit at the sight. If he was going to have this weird out of body experience, at least he wasn’t alone.

“I’m Hueningkai.” Soobin mouthed the unfamiliar syllables, planting it in his brain. He returned Hueningkai’s smile before turning to say something to the other two boys, but someone else beat him to it.

“Can you guys please shut up? It’s not like fighting about it is gonna fix anything.” A fifth voice, thick with emotion and sagging with tiredness. Soobin glanced around, startled, until he finally caught sight of a head of neon colored hair. It was Choi Yeonjun. Behind him, Hueningkai seemed to have the same realization.

“Yeonjun? You’re here too! That’s amaz- well, actually, I guess not.” The joy and surprise on Hueningkai’s face immediately disappeared as he remembered their current situation. Yeonjun just looked back at him, clearly physically and emotionally exhausted by the events of the day. Beomgyu and the red haired boy looked over at the sound of two new voices. There was a long moment of silence as they all just looked around at each other, processing what was happening.

“So this is it? We’re all just dead and forced to live like this? With each other? Are there other ghosts here too? But considering the amount of people who die every day, then there would certainly be other ghosts around here with us as well. So why are we the only ones?” The red haired boy kept mumbling to himself, and Soobin realized that he had a point. They should’ve encountered someone else by now that had been in the same situation as them. Suddenly, as if Soobin had summoned it with his mind, there was a heavy gust of wind and a dark figure appeared in front of them. He was clothed head to toe in a midnight black cloak, his face hidden beneath the overhanging hood. He extended his arm, gesturing for them to come closer.

“Come with me.” In the back of Soobin’s mind he thought about dementors and had a brief moment of imagining getting his soul sucked out of him, but he quickly brushed that fear aside. Dementors weren’t real. Then again, he supposed, none of this was supposed to be real.

“There’s no way I’m just going to willingly go with some sketchy dude that shows up out of nowhere.” Beomgyu responded almost immediately, no trace of fear on his face. The others silently agreed, nodding their heads. The dark figure evidently sighed, and brought his hands fully into view. His skin was unbelievably pale, stretching like paper over his bones. In one hand he held a long shiny black pole, with a curving blade at the top. Was that- a scythe? The other hand reached up to take off his hood. Soobin felt his breath huff out of his lungs once he revealed his face. Purplish black eyes with dark circles underneath that somehow complimented them even more. A handsome, young, symmetrical face. Pink lips that stood out harshly against his pale skin. And floppy black hair that he brushed out of his eyes. Now, Soobin already knew that he was into guys. It had gotten too hard to deny at a certain point. His parents and his closest friends knew, but besides that he tried to hide it. And so he pretended that he was unaffected by the sheer attractiveness of this mysterious man, looking down at the ground.

“Whoa, you look like the Grim Reaper,” Beomgyu said, a grin on his face now. “That’s cool. I’m down to go with you then, I guess.” The red haired boy- Taehyun, looked over at Beomgyu with exasperation, clearly very fed up with his carelessness.

“I am the Grim Reaper.” The man said, looking defeated. There was a chorus of surprised sounds from the five boys. Even Taehyun looked taken aback. The Grim Reaper was real? Soobin would’ve never guessed that such a- deathly person would look like this. He expected him to be older, less human, more demon-like. But the man in front of them looked- almost normal. It comforted Soobin, in a way. Being dead didn’t have to be a scary thing, he supposed. After all, the stigma around the afterlife was just created because people were afraid of dying. There was no reason to assume that it was filled with terror and torture.

“Okay, so that’s it? Going with you is the only option?” This time it was Yeonjun who spoke. He seemed wary, but not too upset. His attitude confused Soobin. He would’ve thought that Yeonjun would be more distressed about the sudden end to his life. He had been the world’s golden boy for years, cherished by fans from all over. So why wasn’t he angry about being pulled out of that perfect life?

“Yep. If you absolutely insist, you can wander around Earth as a ghost for the rest of eternity, but it’s not very pleasant. Most people go insane.” Soobin shuddered at the thought. Not being able to talk or interact with anyone- for the rest of eternity? No matter where the Grim Reaper was bringing them, it had to be better than that. Glancing around at the others, Soobin saw that they had the same reaction. After Yeonjun gave a quick nod, they all stepped forward, ready to be guided by the Grim Reaper. That is, everyone except Taehyun.

“Hold on. Can you at least tell me where we’re going? This all seems really unprofessional and so I’m not sure if I can-” The Grim Reaper gave Taehyun a blank stare before rolling his eyes.

“My god. Trust me, will you? This is your best option.” Before Taehyun had the chance to give him a rebuttal, the Grim Reaper gripped his scythe with both hands and waved it in the direction of the five boys. The next thing they knew, they were floating, wind blowing around their faces. Taehyun let out an embarrassing yelp, immediately covering his mouth and trying to play it off. But Beomgyu didn’t miss it, smirking at him as Taehyun fumed back. Behind Soobin, Hueningkai also screamed, his voice surprisingly high pitched and loud. They all took a moment to get their bearings, looking in awe at how they were suspended above the ground. “Alright. Are we all set?” Soobin felt a little nauseous at first, but he brushed it off, nodding with the others. “Okay. Then let’s go. Say goodbye to the living world.”


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The five boys find what's waiting for them at Refund High.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update! school came at me like a (whoop whoop whoop whoop) firetruck

They arrived at what looked like the entrance to a mansion. The giant double doors were propped open, revealing a dark hallway lined with a long, intricately decorated red carpet. The Grim Reaper maneuvered them to the ground, the five of them stumbling a bit before standing up straight. 

“Alright. Go inside and wait in line to see Queen Yemma. You’ll be able to figure out what to do.” And before any of them had processed what he had just said, he was flying away, disappearing into black mist that faded with the wind. There was a moment of stunned silence as they all watched the space where the Grim Reaper had stood a few seconds ago. Finally Yeonjun cleared his throat and broke the silence. 

“I have no idea who Queen Yemma is, but I guess we should- go inside?” He looked around at the other boys, eventually making eye contact with the tall one- Soobin, his name was. The said boy was worrying his lip between his teeth, glancing over at the entrance nervously. Everyone seemed to be a little wary. After all, they had no idea what to expect. The Grim Reaper hadn’t given them any information. They were silent again, no one answering Yeonjun’s question. He sighed. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.” 

Yeonjun made his way up the wide granite steps and walked through the door without hesitation. He squinted his eyes in the dark, waiting for them to adjust. He could make out a long line of figures, probably other ghosts like himself. As he got closer the hallway became lighter, more and more candles dotting the walls until they all accumulated at the very end, where the person that Yeonjun assumed to be Queen Yemma sat on a giant throne. The throne was the brightest shade of gold, the decoration relatively simple except for the towering back that stretched almost to the ceiling. Queen Yemma herself was draped across the throne, her legs crossed and her chin raised as she stared down at the person in front of her. She had short wavy grey hair that fell gracefully over her forehead. And her skin was a light purple. Yeonjun thought that it was just a trick of the light, but then he noticed other people in the line with hair, eye, or skin colors that he wasn’t familiar with. In fact, a lot of these people didn’t seem to be human. He even caught sight of someone with what looked like tiger fur. Yeonjun hesitantly got in line behind the last person, who gave him a quick glance before turning back. The line wasn’t endlessly long, but it wasn’t exactly moving very fast either.

“What’s going on?” Someone whispered next to his ear, and Yeonjun jumped. When he whipped around to look, he saw that it was Beomgyu. He made out the silhouettes of the other three boys coming in the door as well. 

“Not sure. We have to wait in line and talk to Queen Yemma.” Beomgyu nodded and glanced behind Yeonjun to look at the queen on the throne. Yeonjun watched as he registered her non conventional appearance and saw him raise his eyebrows. When he looked back at Yeonjun the latter shrugged. He was surprised, but after everything that had happened today he wasn’t fully shocked. 

“Reincarnation?!” They heard someone cry from the front of the line before being shushed. Now that was something to leave Yeonjun speechless. He was expecting some sort of boring afterlife, where he would be forced to pay for any mistakes he made in his past life. But reincarnation- that changed the game completely. Next to him, Beomgyu seemed to be having the same revelation.

“Did they say reincarnation?” Beomgyu was grinning widely, almost bouncing with excitement. “That fixes everything. Guess I never had to be so scared about dying, huh?” Yeonjun glanced at him skeptically. Based on the videos that the other boy made, it already seemed like he didn’t fear death. Yeonjun didn’t want to imagine what kind of ideas he was thinking of now. 

Yeonjun supposed that it was a good thing, getting reincarnated. It should be. I mean, it was probably better than living as a ghost and having to antagonize over his past memories until he faded into nothing. But Yeonjun thought that death was supposed to be more- final. When he thought of death, he pictured suffocating darkness and stillness. Like falling asleep, but for forever. Yeonjun wouldn’t have minded that. There were times in the past few months, during his lowest moments, where he had gone to bed with half of him hoping to never wake up. But the chaos that he had encountered so far- and now with the idea of reincarnation- death seemed to be as crazy as life. 

By now they had moved up quite a bit in line, and Yeonjun could hear what the other ghosts were saying to Queen Yemma.

“Please, you have to bring me back! My grandmother- she’s sick, and I really wanted to spend as much time as possible before she goes. And I just found out that I got into the university that I wanted- please, there’s so much that I need to do.” Whoever was speaking was on the bridge of hysteria, mixed please and cries tumbled out of their mouth one after another. Oh. So everyone had to make a plea of why they didn’t deserve to die, and then they would be reincarnated? Yeonjun supposed that there was some level of criteria- he had to be somewhat convincing. Yeonjun tried to muster up a genuine act of sadness about leaving his idol life so quickly. It was harder than he thought. True, he obviously hadn’t planned to die so young, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t considered it. He hadn’t seen his family in years ever since he went to become an idol trainee. They had only visited on a few birthdays and performances, and even then it had been constantly monitored by a camera. No real privacy, no time to let himself be vulnerable. And with the scandal that he had encountered- his career might’ve reached its peak. Even if he didn’t get kicked out of his company, he probably wouldn’t be able to reach the same amount of success that he did after his debut. The media had memory like an elephant, and they would never stop talking about his scandal. He’d ride out the rest of his time as a small, unknown artist and then go serve in the military and then- who knew? He had barely finished high school. The idol life didn’t pay much, so he would need to get some sort of job. Yeonjun pictured a below average life of mindless work as he slowly aged in obscurity. It sounded absolutely awful. 

“Next!” Yeonjun was startled out of his thoughts by the stern, booming voice of Queen Yemma. He automatically looked for the next person in line only to find himself staring up into her frowning face. Shit. It was his turn. Yeonjun’s mind was blank, but he managed to start talking. 

“Hi.” Great start. He looked up at Queen Yemma’s face and immediately regretted it. Her eyes dug into him like claws. Nervously, he just started saying whatever came to mind. “I really can’t die yet. I was an idol, and I was pretty famous- I mean, I guess I should be humble, but I was very successful- that sounds really conceited, doesn’t it.” Yeonjun sighed. His words fell flat no matter how hard he tried to sound convincing. And by the look on Queen Yemma’s face, she noticed as well. “Okay. I admit that I wasn’t really happy when I died, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go back. Wouldn’t it be better for me to get a second chance and learn how to have an enjoyable life?” Yeonjun was surprised at how easily he was able to reason through his problem. He wondered what he would do differently now that he knew how miserable his idol life had been. Queen Yemma’s expression had changed to something more thoughtful, her eyebrows raising in surprise. 

“Interesting.” Her voice sounded giant in comparison to Yeonjun’s. She paused for an uncomfortably long moment. “Most people tell us about how cruel it was for them to die amidst their happy life. But you, Yeonjun.” How did she know his name? “You are quite the opposite. Death almost took you out of your misery. You’re quite the intriguing case.” She tapped her fingers on the armrest of the throne, the sound ringing out across the cavernous hallway. Yeonjun held his breath as he waited for her answer. After a moment she leaned down to look at him closely, her strong gaze meeting Yeonjun’s. He swallowed harshly, but didn’t break eye contact. Finally she gave a somewhat cold smile. “Yes, I think it would be rather interesting to see how you would do in reincarnation. Are you satisfied with that choice?” 

Yeonjun was a little taken aback, but he managed to choke out a hasty “Yes.” Queen Yemma had seen right through him, and yet she was still giving him a second chance. Yeonjun honestly couldn’t believe that he was worth it. 

“Perfect.” She leaned back into the throne, once again looming over Yeonjun. “Now unless you want to get reincarnated as a random animal-” she gestured over to a separate, smaller line, where spirits were getting turned into all sorts of unappealing creatures, “I would suggest you choose to attend our Reincarnation High School. You’ll have to study for three years. If you pass, you’ll be able to get reincarnated into whatever life you desire.” High school? Yeonjun felt a small part of him sink at the premise. High school hadn’t been the happiest time for him, since he had been overwhelmed with the stress of schoolwork on top of his training. Going back sounded like hell, but- reincarnated in any life he wanted? It was too tempting to resist. 

Taking a deep breath, Yeonjun looked up at Queen Yemma and gave his final answer. “Okay. Send me to Reincarnation High School.”  
⋯  
Taehyun blinked his eyes open, feeling a little groggy. The world gradually came into focus, and he took in the giant gate stationed in front of him. Jeez. Was everything in this world extremely oversized? The gate seemed to be shimmering, light shifting off of it in a peculiar way. Taehyun put a hand to his aching head and groaned. He slowly began to remember going into a mansion, waiting in line, and then launching into a well organized speech about his usefulness in life to some sort of queen. And then she had said something about getting reincarnated, going to some place called-

“All those going to Refund High, please follow me!” Taehyun looked around to see who had spoken and startled at what he saw. Instead of a person as he had expected, he came face to face with a huge (once again, why was everything so big?), purplish black raven. Its beady eyes pierced into him, unmoving. Warily, Taehyun took a couple steps back and felt his back bump into someone’s bony shoulder. 

“Ow! Hey, wait a minute-” Taehyun recognized that overzealous voice. Grinding his teeth, he whipped around and- yep, there was Choi Beomgyu, looking at him with a glint in his eye. Taehyun’s blood boiled. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Taehyun muttered, his eyes never leaving Beomgyu’s, his gaze steely and cold. Beomgyu grinned back at him, although his smile didn’t reach his eyes, his expression staying sinister. 

“Looks like you’re gonna be stuck with me for a while. You should probably start getting used to looking both ways before you cross a street-” Before he knew it Taehyun was hurling himself at the other boy, his fist already ready to strike. Beomgyu didn’t even flinch away, instead automatically raising up his arms to fend the other boy off, his eyes still gleaming. That made Taehyun even more pissed off. What would it take to get this boy to actually crack?

But before Taehyun could make contact with Beomgyu, he was stopped by someone else running between them, grabbing Taehyun’s arm and holding it in its place. Taehyun felt a flash of anger and moved to mouth off whoever had gotten between them. But his words died in his throat when he saw that it was Soobin. Odd, considering how soft spoken the boy had seemed before. He still looked a little nervous, but he was surprisingly strong. No matter how hard Taehyun struggled, Soobin’s grip on his arm never relented.

“We shouldn’t be fighting right now. We’ll have to spend the next three years together, so let’s try and start on a good note, okay?” With that, Soobin released Taehyun and stepped away, going back to stand near the gangly limbed boy with the interesting name- Hueningkai. Glancing around, Taehyun made eye contact with Yeonjun as well, who nodded in agreement with Soobin. Taehyun clenched his fist, tensing. Logically, Soobin was correct. Taehyun felt his skin crawl at the idea of spending the next three years constantly bickering and on edge with Beomgyu. But Taehyun’s pride wasn’t going to let him bow down and beg Beomgyu to forgive him. So instead Taehyun just turned away, giving Beomgyu one last glare to let him know that he wasn’t finished with him.

“The tall one is mostly right.” Taehyun jumped. He had forgotten about the talking raven. “Although you shouldn’t have much reason to be mad at each other once your memories are gone.” That had all of them speechless. 

“What did you say?” Taehyun’s mind was whirling. How was he supposed to make it through the next three years if he couldn’t even remember who he was? Would he still remember his name? The knowledge that he had spent hours upon hours studying in university? He was about to become a whole new person. Panic started to set in as Taehyun scrambled to think about all of the things he desperately wanted to remember, only to realize that they would soon be wiped from his brain.

“You can’t have any connections past life if you’re about to start a new one. You’ll still have all of the necessary knowledge that you need to function, of course. Your name, reading, writing, the works. You would become just like a normal person your age- just with no recollection of family, friends, et cetera. A blank slate, if you will. If you’re really desperate to get your memories back then that chance will be presented to you. But I’m almost positive you’ll find that sometimes it is better to be… naive.” The raven stared all of them down, sending a shiver up Taehyun’s spine. “Well, if that changes your mind, then feel free to go back to either becoming one of those- disgusting reptiles- or suffer as a ghost all by yourself. If not, then just follow me right through these gates.” The raven lifted its wings and and flew towards the gates, the doors automatically opening and revealing a blinding ray of light. They all squinted against it. As soon as their vision adjusted, the raven was out of sight and the doors swung closed again with a thump. There was a tense moment of silence. 

“So we’re not going to remember anyone? Not even each other?” Hueningkai was glancing around at them with wide eyes. He bit his lip and looked down, evidently thinking of his past life. Taehyun followed suit and did the same. He did truly love his family, even despite the hard moments. And- well, he didn’t really have any good friends to miss, and a significant other was completely out of the question. But imagining all of his good memories being torn away was still painful. On the other hand, if what Queen Yemma had said was true, then Taehyun should be able to go back to his family as long as he worked his way through this strange high school. And that was a much more promising option then any of the others. 

“I guess not. But if everything goes to plan, we’ll still be able to go back into our old lives along with a wish, according to Queen Yemma. And the raven- um, it said that we can get our memories back if we absolutely want to. So really it’s fine.” Taehyun was half reassuring himself, but he saw everyone else visibly relax as well. 

“Okay. Then let’s do it! I call dibs on going first. Come on, magical gates!” Beomgyu ran over to the double doors and waited expectantly, letting out a sound of wonder when they opened. Taehyun bit his cheek to avoid snapping at the older boy’s childish manner. He watched as Beomgyu stepped through the gates and disappeared into the white light. Taking a breath, he forced himself to walk calmly and follow him. 

“I’ll go next.” Taehyun approached the doors, which sensed his presence and stayed open. He tried to peer in to see what was on the other side, but everything just looked like a great cloud of light. He supposed that he would have to take a leap of faith. He said his last goodbyes to his family. Sorry that I didn’t visit you more often, Mom. Sorry that I didn’t get the chance to make you proud, Dad. With his eyes tightly closed, Taehyun stepped one foot after another into the unknown world that waited for him.  
⋯  
Taehyun opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the shadow of a tall, blueish gray building. It was elegant, with an archway for an entrance and long paneled windows dotting the walls. Torches glowing with a blue flame sat on either side of the doorway. Taehyun reached out a hand to brush at his bangs, and saw that he was now wearing some sort of uniform. Looking down, he saw a crisp white shirt with a red tie, with a dark grey jacket over it. The jacket was also decorated with a few skulls and crosses, a constant reminder that he was no longer in the living world. It made him shiver. For a second, this had felt almost normal. He heard the sound of shuffling feet and caught sight of someone else in his peripheral vision. With a start he realized that he wasn’t alone. Four other boys around his age stared back at him, dressed in the same attire that he was. He made eye contact with the black haired one, and felt his face heat up with anger. He didn’t like him, but his brain refused to tell him why. It was like he had a constant cobweb that he couldn’t shake- he knew that there was more to his memories, but every time he tried to think past the last few minutes he got a massive headache. 

“Coming through!” Taehyun automatically stepped to the side, looking to see who had spoken. It was someone else dressed in the uniform, but it didn’t look like a normal person. His hair was a light blonde tinged with black at the ends, long and shaggy. It ran all the way down his back, ending with- was that a tail? Why was this tiger human hybrid at the same school as Taehyun? The hybrid must’ve seen Taehyun staring at him, because he turned and waved. “Hey! I’m Daniel.” Taehyun looked back at him with wide eyes, frozen. Daniel shifted uncomfortably. “Uh. Are you going to go inside?” Taehyun shook himself out of his daze and was about to respond when he was pushed beside by someone else. 

“Whoa! Your hair is so cool!” It was the black haired boy, now standing in front of Taehyun and grinning at Daniel. Taehyun gritted his teeth in annoyance. Daniel smiled back and put his hand on the other boy’s shoulder

“Thanks, man! Hey, what class are you in?” Daniel reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a leaf with a number written on it. The other boy did the same, and the two of them walked inside the building, still chatting happily. Taehyun and the others were left in silence. 

“I’m in class… four?” The tall wavy haired boy had pulled out his leaf. Taehyun did the same.

“Me too. Anyone know how to get there?” He looked around at the other three and was met with blank stares. The yellow haired boy held up his own leaf and shrugged.

“No idea, but it looks like we’re all in the same class. I guess we can find it together?” Taehyun nodded in agreement, and the four of them made their way up the stone steps and into the school. At first, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. Standard shiny white floors and light gray walls. Each doorway had a sign at the top with a series of numbers indicating what class it was for. The faint murmuring of students talking could be heard throughout the building. Taehyun relaxed a little bit. He could handle this. But the uneasiness soon returned as soon as he caught sight of all of the different people walking down the hallway. There were other tigers like Daniel, some people with tiny antlers, and some with feathery wings. Taehyun felt more out of place than ever. He forced himself to focus on finding his classroom, scanning the signs for something that indicated Year 1, Class 4. He finally caught sight of it right as the teacher was going inside. 

“Right here, guys!” Taehyun called back to the others and jogged over to the doorway, cursing himself for managing to be late on the very first day. He skidded to a stop in front of the doorway, peering inside cautiously, feeling the others come up behind him. The teacher stared back at them, his eyes mostly hidden by his thick glasses. He ran a hand through his black hair and gestured for them to come in. Taehyun creeped inside, glancing around at the multitude of unfamiliar faces that were all turned towards him. He saw an empty seat in the back and made his way over. He heard the other classmates murmuring as he walked past, and Taehyun’s skin crawled with panic. What could they be saying about him? He quickly plopped down into the seat, the other three boys- he had learned that their names were Hueningkai, Soobin, and Yeonjun- settling nearby. The murmurs slowly died away, but not before a few more glances were cast in their direction. Taehyun stared straight ahead, pretending to be unbothered.

“They’re talking about how handsome you are.” The girl in front of Taehyun had turned around in her seat to smile at him. Taehyun felt his face heat up with embarrassment. Handsome? Taehyun shifted uncomfortably, not knowing how to react. The girl continued. “All of you, actually. Get ready for lots of attention.” She winked, and Taehyun realized that her eyes were a brilliant shade of deep violet. She didn’t have any of the features that the supernatural students had, but there was no way that those eyes were natural. Taehyun debated asking, but decided that would be kind of rude considering that they had just met. Taehyun scanned the classroom again, this time with a new perspective. So they were admiring him, not making fun of him. It made him flustered, but it was nice to know that they liked him so f- Taehyun’s blood went cold. Sitting in a desk at the edge of the classroom, a few rows in front of Taehyun, was none other than the black haired boy. He was looking back at Taehyun, his eyes wide. Taehyun expected him to grin, or throw a wink, so he automatically began to glare at him. To his surprise, Beomgyu just looked away, his hands fidgeting nervously. 

“Alright, let’s settle down.” The teacher had finished arranging his possessions on the desk and was now turning toward the chalkboard- honestly, they still had a chalkboard at a place like this?- and began to write. “Welcome to Reincarnation High School, informally called Refund High. I will be your homeroom and history teacher. The subjects here may not be what you’re used to, so let me go through them.” Oh no. What kind of things would they be expected to learn here?

“First, there’s ethics class. That will be focused on dealing with the repercussions of your past life. Reflect on your actions, and all that. Similarly, there’s what is called mindfulness and meditation. As you’ll soon learn, you each have a certain amount of soul weight depending on how much you are holding onto your past life. You’ll need to get that soul weight down to a certain level if you want to make it past this year.” Taehyun’s hands itched to have something to write with- this all seemed much more complicated than he had expected. “There’s history, as I already mentioned, of both the human and nirvana world.” Nirvana? That must be where these different creatures came from. So there were two worlds existing simultaneously? Taehyun’s brain hurt. “You’ll have a physical education class, for your own fitness and safety. I’ll get more on the safety protocols later. Finally, there’s an art and performance class, mostly just for fun. Any questions?” A few kids raised their hand, but Taehyun didn’t hear what they were saying. He was too caught up in the overwhelming amount of information that he had just received. What kind of classes were these? They kept PE and art but didn’t have anything resembling math or science? At that moment, a second teacher came in, indicating that she needed to speak with their homeroom teacher. He stepped outside, and the chattering began again. 

“There’s art, huh?” Yeonjun was looking thoughtfully at what the teacher had written on the board. “That sounds- cool.” Taehyun examined the other boy carefully. Maybe it was just his dyed hair, but he did seem like the performer type. Taehyun thought about what he himself was going to do for art. He had no memory of whether he enjoyed painting or dancing or singing- Taehyun suddenly shivered. His instincts were telling him not to think about this anymore. 

“How are we supposed to know how to- do all that stuff with our past life if we can’t remember it?” This time it was Hueningkai who spoke, his eyes wide. He had a good point. Taehyun had no idea what kind of trauma he might be holding from his past life. He supposed that he would find out once they got their soul weights. 

“Good point. I bet that I could guess who I was in my past life,” Yeonjun said. “Top student of my university? A star athlete? Ooh, maybe I was an actor. I’m sure that this handsome face could get me places.” They all chuckled. At least, Soobin and Taehyun chuckled. Hueningkai let out something between a laugh and a screech. Yeonjun starred at Soobin, who was smiling brightly with his dimples on full display. “Are you sure you weren’t a bunny in your past life? You’re too cute to have been a human.” Soobin became flustered, his smile fading and his mouth opening in a surprised pout. The expression only made him seem even more like a cute little animal, and Yeonjun gestured with a smug smile on his face. “See? It’s too uncanny.” 

“Hey!” Someone was shouting across the room. Taehyun continued his light conversation with Yeonjun, unbothered. “Red hair!” That made him look up. When Taehyun broke his gaze away from the blonde boy, he saw that at least half the room was staring right at him. Soon his face was as red as his hair. He hated being flustered, but he couldn’t help it with all of this attention. The girl who had spoken caught his gaze and broke into a smile. “Hi. Sorry for shouting, you looked pretty focused. What’s your name?” Taehyun stuttered for a moment.

“Um. I’m Taehyun.” There was a wave of murmurs as everyone repeated his name to themselves. Taehyun couldn’t believe the power he held over the room- just because he was handsome, apparently.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Sana. And this,” she put a hand on the black haired boy’s shoulder, who Taehyun now realized was sitting next to her. “Is my friend Beomgyu. He’s-” Beomgyu practically tackled her, eliciting a laugh from her and the people around them. Taehyun immediately looked away. Beomgyu was probably mocking him about something, and Sana had been about to tell him. And of course Beomgyu had already made friends within the first hour of being here. As much as he hated to admit it, Taehyun was envious of his social ability. Sure, he at least had Yeonjun and the others, but they were barely acquaintances. In a week they might never talk to each other again. And especially with the extreme uncertainty of this new school, Taehyun really needed friends that he could rely on. The conversations in the room continued, and Taehyun heard Yeonjun, Soobin, and Hueningkai introducing themselves to their classmates as well. But Taehyun stayed silent, unable to stop thinking about what had just happened with Beomgyu. Great. He was already overthinking everything. Luckily, the teacher came in to save Taehyun from any further interaction.

“Alright everyone, can I have your attention?” The conversations slowly died out. “Thanks. There are a couple safety procedures I have to mention before I can send you off. First, make sure to stay on school property. Once you’re outside school bounds, you’re subject to any dark spirits that might attack you. If you ever find yourself in any trouble, find a place to hide and wait. We’ll help you as soon as we can. There’s no fighting in the halls, especially if you have powers. Looking at you, Azula.” The purple eyed girl made an exasperated gesture, and the history teacher smiled gently at her. “Just joking. Anyway, be civil with each other, you can still be hurt even though you’re technically dead. If you’re caught breaking the rules, strict disciplinary action will be taken. Am I clear?’ Taehyun nodded along with everyone else, but he was looking curiously at the purple eyed girl- Azula. Why did she seem so different? “And with that, homeroom has ended. It’s time for you to head to your first class.” The female teacher beside him waved her hand and began speaking.

“Perfect! I’m your ethics teacher, so you’ll be coming with me first. Right this way!” She gave them one last bubbly smile before gesturing for them to follow her. Taehyun got up reluctantly, nerves already churning in his stomach. Not only were these classes going to be stressful, but he also had to worry about not dying (again). And there were students with powers? As Taehyun walked out the door, the history teacher gave them one last message.

“But be sure to have fun here while you’re at it. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. So enjoy your first day, and welcome to Refund High!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...yeah his name is daniel tiger... i'm having way too much fun
> 
> also! azula (yeah, she's named after the atla character (O.O) but she's not evil i swear) is actually an oc that i've held in my head ever since i read the webtoon for the first time,,, she'll be making some appearances as a side character along with some other kpop idols, as you saw with Sana.  
> i hope that the switch between perspectives wasn't too confusing, i'll try my best to make it smoother from now on. thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed! ヽ(^◇^*)/
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally updated! I know I'm a little slow (╥_╥). no chapter summary- i... don't know how to sum up this chapter bc it's a bit of a mess haha

Beomgyu felt a tap on his shoulder as he followed his classmates down the hallway. Turning he saw Sana’s grinning face, her eyes gleaming. She had the same facial expression as when Beomgyu had first walked into the homeroom. Intrigued, amused, and a little daring. Everyone had been staring at Beomgyu when he walked in, the same way that they had been looking at Taehyun. But instead of getting shy like the other boy had, Beomgyu had given them all a grin and a wink. After he sat down he had turned to Sana and said ‘No need to stare, I know that I’m prettier than you.’ That had made Sana burst out laughing, and since then they’d been pretty friendly with each other. 

“You missed your chance, pretty boy. I gave you the perfect opportunity to flirt with the red haired kid.” Beomgyu glared at her, which only made her grin more. He hadn’t realized that his reaction to Taehyun had been so obvious. It wasn’t as much of a big deal as Sana was making it. Taehyun was handsome- pretty much everyone in their class thought so. Beomgyu was sure that everyone else had felt their heart flutter when they caught sight of his perfectly symmetrical features and wide, brown eyes framed with long eyelashes. Thinking someone was attractive meant nothing. Especially with Taehyun, since it was practically an undeniable fact that the boy was gorgeous.

“I never asked you to do that. I wouldn’t want to flirt with him, anyway. He seems boring.” Beomgyu internally flinched at how mocking his words were, but he didn’t let it show. He had gotten off to a good start with the people here, and he wasn’t about to blow it by seeming weak. Sana shrugged.

“Your loss. Maybe we can sit right next to him next class. Or I can push you into him so you can have a nice meet cute! Hold on-” Beomgyu yelped in surprise and ducked away from Sana, running to hide behind Daniel. 

“Absolutely not!” He spoke a little bit louder than he had intended, and their commotion attracted the attention of the others. Beomgyu quieted down, trying to play off the awkwardness. Next to him, Daniel held back a laugh. 

They finally reached the new classroom, and the ethics teacher gestured excitedly for all of them to sit down. This time Beomgyu headed all the way to the back, plopping down in between Daniel and Sana. A tall girl sat down in front of Sana, and she sighed, looking over at Beomgyu. She leaned forward to talk quietly to the other girl.

“Hey, are you sure you don’t want to sit in the back row? You’re kind of blocking my view. And I’m not even that short, so you must be really t-” Sana’s voice cut off as soon as the other girl turned around. Beomgyu sucked in a breath as well. The girl was absolutely stunning, with a small round face framed with long reddish brown hair, her big brown eyes blinking back at Sana. And yet despite her soft features, her face was set in a very intimidating look, staring Sana down. It was an uncanny resemblance to another red haired person that Beomgyu knew. The latter squeaked, her cheeks turning pink. “N-nevermind.” The girl turned back around without another word. Beomgyu tried his best to contain his giggles. 

“You know, I can accidentally push you into her later if you want a ‘meet-cute,’” Beomgyu whispered, and was met with a playful shove from Sana. She was about to come back with another retort but was interrupted by their teacher beginning to speak.

“Welcome to ethics class everyone!” The teacher gave them a big smile, brushing back her chin length curly brown hair. “As you’ve already heard, we will mostly be focused on learning from any mistakes that you’ve made in your past life. Even though you can’t remember them, the activities will still help you learn how to turn your troubles into something useful. Our main task will be to knit something of your choice with the string that I give you.” Knitting? Beomgyu furrowed his brow. He was in a school for the dead, and the first thing that they were doing was knitting? “I’ll be handing out your materials now.” She began to read off names and handed a clump of red string to the respective student. When she got to Beomgyu, he raised his hand unenthusiastically. It was hard to get excited about knitting. He picked up the string that had been plopped on his desk and examined it. The first thing he noticed was how knotted it was. He began to pull it apart to get rid of the mess, but it only seemed to get worse the more he tried. The teacher walked back to the front of the room and addressed the whole class.

“You’re probably realizing that your yarn is a little bit tangled.” ‘A little bit’ was an understatement. “Your first job will be to untangle your yarn until you are able to roll it into a ball suited for knitting.” Beomgyu groaned and turned to mutter something to Daniel.

“This is so stupid. Are we really going to spend a whole hour untangling yarn?” 

“Honestly, it might take more than an hour,” Daniel said, showing Beomgyu his extremely messed up yarn. “I guess we should probably start.”

And so, to Beomgyu disbelief, they spent the next part of class just chatting and trying to undo all the knots that were in their yarn. Each person’s clump was different, with varying levels of tangledness. Beomgyu glanced around the room, trying to see who had gotten a harder task. Taehyun’s was about the same as his, he noted (he happened to see his casually, he wasn’t looking for him or anything). A couple kids had much bigger clumps, but Beomgyu noticed that the tall purple haired boy had very little to untangle. His gaze narrowed in annoyance.

“How come his is so small?” Beomgyu whispered to Daniel. The other boy shrugged, still focused on his own string.

“I don’t know. There’s probably some symbolism or some shit. This is ethics, right? Maybe it’s something about your string reflecting your bad deeds. The more you have to untangle, the more things you did wrong. Looks like I was a bit rude in my past life.” Daniel joked, holding up his clump. Beomgyu stared blankly back. He didn’t understand how he could talk about his past life so freely. Beomgyu still desperately wanted to know everything about it. Glancing back at the purple haired boy, Beomgyu tilted his head in curiosity. So he hadn’t ruffled too many feathers in his past life. Based on the way the other boy was looking shyly at anyone who talked to him, Beomgyu wasn’t surprised. He didn’t seem like one to do a lot of careless things. But the idea of the string representing their mistakes brought up an interesting thought. Taehyun’s clump was bigger than the shy boy’s, and about the same as Beomgyu’s. So they had both been equally as reckless. That was a thought that made Beomgyu smile. Maybe he wasn’t as boring as he came across as. 

About fifteen minutes into class, the teacher came around to collect their string again. Beomgyu sighed with relief. It was nice to be able to talk to everyone, but he thought that he might go crazy if he had to untangle yarn for a whole hour. Once the teacher had collected everyone’s, she moved back to the front and picked up a piece of chalk.

“Let’s talk a little bit about what I mean when I say that this class is about the ‘mistakes’ you made in your past life. Generally this means anything that you did that would be considered ‘bad.’ But that is a really vague word, isn’t it? What are some things that you all would consider bad?” People raised their hands with simple answers like murder or stealing. After each answer the teacher pushed them to expand more, be more specific about what examples would be evil and what examples might not be. She wrote each one on the board with a couple notes on what the student said. At one point Taehyun raised his hand.

“Lying.” Taehyun didn’t hesitate for a second. The teacher nodded, gesturing for him to explain more. “I mean, I feel like a lot of people lie about little things. But what would be really annoying is lying about who you are. Pretending to be someone else just for attention is just straight up manipulation.” 

“So you would say lying and manipulation are considered evil to you.” Taehyun nodded. Beomgyu stared in curiosity, a little bit stunned. The way the other boy spoke was so passionate, and for some reason it made Beomgyu slightly uncomfortable. He quickly looked away. 

The teacher finished up her list and faced the class again. “Look at how long this list is! And none of you have any memories to base your ideas off of. That means that your instinct about what’s good versus what’s evil is a natural part of your conscience. And just how we all have our own unique personalities and appearances, your conscience is unique as well.” She stepped forward and picked up the basket of red string. “As many of you already figured out, the strings represent the ‘bad’ things that you did in your past life. But what is considered ‘bad’ isn’t defined by us, or Queen Yemma, or anyone except yourself. These tangles of yarn represent the things you did that your conscience has recognized as negative, even if your conscious mind may not have admitted it. So as you untangle your yarn, I want you to revisit your conscience, really decide what your individual morals are. And try your best to follow them, of course!” 

The stunned silence of the class was interrupted by the clanging sound of a bell ringing. The teacher smiled at them again, her eyes turning into crescents. “That’s it for today! Your next class is history, back in your original classroom. See you tomorrow!”

Beomgyu slowly got out of his chair, looking over at Daniel. “That was- interesting.”

Daniel laughed. “Right? I want to go back to when we were just untangling string.” They chuckled together, walking out the door, Sana following slightly behind. They walked right past Taehyun on their way out. Beomgyu could feel the other boy’s eyes on him, and his eyes burned as he resisted the urge to stare back. Whatever fascination he had with Taehyun would be over soon. Honestly, it was probably just because he found the other annoying. That’s all.

“...do either of you know how to subtly ask someone if she likes girls?” Sana’s voice sounded tiny from behind them. Beomgyu burst out laughing. 

“You don’t even know her name yet Sana-” 

“Hey! I never said it was about me!”

History class had a very different vibe than ethics. First of all, their teacher was way less bubbly and friendly, hiding behind his thick glasses and dark hair. Beomgyu thought he heard a few girls talking about how handsome the teacher was, but he personally didn’t see it. 

“Welcome to history. The main focus of this class is learning about the living world so you’ll be able to understand your memories if you choose to receive them. Now. Clearly, not everyone in this room is from the same world.” Beomgyu made direct eye contact with Daniel, both of them hiding a smile behind their hands. Yeah, that sounded about right. “There are two worlds in this universe. The first one is the human world, what we called Earth. The second is the supernatural, what we call Nirvana. Those of you who are from each world probably have a general idea of what it’s like there, but the details are most likely very foggy. And you probably don’t have any idea about what goes on in the other world. So, today let’s just get a general outline of each environment. Yes, Azula?” The teacher was looking almost fondly down at the girl who had raised her hand. That was another weird thing that Beomgyu had noticed. Although the history teacher was very professional with most of the students, he seemed to share a different bond with a few of them. Not in a creepy way, but it was just like they both knew something that the others didn’t. 

“Can I please explain the Nirvana world? I’ll make it ~exciting~.” The said girl- Azula, had mostly human features except for her deep purple eyes. And her irises seemed to be differently shaped as well. The teacher sighed, but stepped aside. 

“Fine. But I’m allowed to stop you if you go off topic.” Azula grinned and stood up. She faced the class, looking at all of them with her piercing gaze. 

“The Nirvana world consists of four main species. Tigers, eagles, sea serpents, and dragons. Tigers are the ones with fur and stripes, eagles are the ones with wings, sea serpents have little horns, and dragons- well, I’m the only dragon that you’re going to see here. Each species represents a different element- earth, wind, water, and fire, respectively. They don’t necessarily control that element, but they’re just the most comfortable in it. Right now we’re all in our human forms, but we shift into our full animal body, especially once we are in our element. So watch out for sea serpents when it’s raining. I’d show you how I shift, but it might be a little alarming. Now, the um-” Azula was blushing a bit now, shifting uncomfortably. “This is going to sound really conceited, but the strongest species are the dragons. The- um, royal family in the Nirvana world are all dragons. Mainly because dragons can control all the elements. They can protect other species from any dangers to their population. And along with having all the elements, there are other… perks that come with being a dragon. I mean, you usually don’t die. Not this young.” Azula paused awkwardly. “And if you do, you retain your memories. So. That’s why I remember everything. But I promise I’m not trying to be unfair! I don’t know anything about the human world. I swear I’m not trying to brag or anything about being a dragon, and I won’t show off my powers or anything like that- I’m gonna sit down.” Azula abruptly cut off her panicked ramble and hurried back to her seat. The history teacher looked somewhat amused.

“Care to say anything about the royal family? We’ll be learning about that soon.” 

“Nope.” Azula responded immediately, her voice dropping an octave.

Beomgyu wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be taking notes or whatever (I mean, they didn’t have any school supplies yet so that would be impossible), but he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t have even if he had a notebook in front of him. Azula’s explanation had been way crazier than he expected. That meant that all of them- including Daniel- had supernatural powers? They could shift and control the elements and- how had this complex of a world existed without Beomgyu ever knowing it? 

The rest of class was pretty much a blur. Beomgyu vaguely remembered learning about the differences between Earth and Nirvana, but the details had escaped his mind. Something about seeing people like Azula and Daniel and realizing that they were huge, powerful creatures made Beomgyu feel kind of tiny. And he’s 180 cm tall. 

“...and that’s where we’ll leave off for today. You’re now on lunch break, but you should go to your dorms first and meet your roommates. The hallways are determined by class and your name should be on your door.” Roommates? That sounded exciting. Beomgyu brushed off whatever existential crisis he was about to have and turned his attention to meeting his new dormates. 

“C’mon, let’s go see if we’ll be near each other.” Beomgyu gestured to Daniel and Sana before rushing out the door, bumping into a few people along the way. He had barely made it a few steps down the hallways before he caught sight of a flash of purple eyes and skidded to a stop. Azula was standing aimlessly in the hallway, swinging her hands back and forth as she waited. Beomgyu couldn’t help but look at her, questions bubbling on his tongue. But he shoved them down, knowing that it would be rude. 

“Your explanation was really cool. I can’t believe you’re a dragon, that’s sick.” Beomgyu grinned at her, and she returned the gesture, although her eyes seemed to indicate that she was a little bit out of it. 

“Thanks. I’m a pretty lame dragon though, in my opinion. I went and died when I wasn’t supposed to.” Azula chuckled, but she saw how uncomfortable Beomgyu had gotten. “It’s a joke, don’t worry.” She glanced over Beomgyu’s head to peer back at the classroom. “Anyway, I should probably go.” She stepped past him and back towards the classroom. 

“You’re not going to the dorms?” Beomgyu asked. Azula turned around and gave him a wry smile.

“Nope. They can’t run the risk of me accidentally setting someone on fire, or anything like that. So I live separately, near the faculty.” The faculty. That explains why the history teacher already knew her. “And don’t be scared, I would never set someone on fire. See you!” Azula turned around, her long black hair swishing down her back, gleaming with a hint of red. Beomgyu watched her retreating back. It was going to take a lot to get used to these- other people. Azula seemed pretty normal, and she said that she was the only dragon, but what if there were others? Beomgyu shuddered at the thought of having to face on in their full form. They’d be able to crush his stupid human body in a second. He had a short flashback to the safety procedures that they had gone through earlier today, and felt a small tingling fear on the back of his neck. He shook his head to clear it. What was he supposed to be doing? Right. Dorms. Beomgyu turned back around and hurried down the hallway, still a little bit dazed. A sharp pain suddenly spread through his head as he bumped into someone’s back. He looked up to see a wide eyed boy standing in front of him, already bowing profusely.

“Sorry! I didn’t see you!”  
⋯  
“Sorry!” Hueningkai called again after the black haired boy as he let him pass him in the hallway. “Get it together,” he whispered to himself. He continued slowly down the hallway, following the rest of his classmates. His stomach was jumping with nerves at the idea of meeting his roommates. He could just picture them all being unusually cold and unfriendly, or getting a weird first impression from him, or all becoming friends except for him and leaving him behind. It seemed like with every social situation there were always a million things that could go wrong.

Hueningkai took a few deep breaths as he scanned the whiteboards that were hung on each dorm room door. It looked like each room had four people, with two bunk beds and a few desks for schoolwork. Sounds of laughter and excited voices drifted out of the rooms with the door slightly ajar, and Hueningkai caught sight of a few smiling faces. It set him a little bit at ease. Everyone here was just trying to get along, after all. And everyone he’d met so far were pretty friendly. 

“Ah.” Finally Hueningkai caught sight of his name, amused at how long and complicated it looked next to the others. He scanned the other names and sighed with relief when he realized that he recognized a few others. Soobin and Taehyun, two of the people that he had met on his way in. The last name though- Hueningkai tried to sound out the letters and failed. It looked pretty foreign to him. 

Stepping inside the room, Hueningkai was astonished by how big it was. He had pictured a dark and cramped space with harsh cement walls, but he was met with a high ceiling, polished wood, and sun streaming in through the windows. He supposed that in a place like this there was no reason to make things more dreary than they needed to be. He began to examine the beds, which all had covers in the same blueish grey color that Hueningkai had started to associate with this school. Sitting on top of the bedsheets was a navy blue backpack, with two light brown straps running vertically up the back of it. Hueningkai undid the straps and flipped open the top flap. Inside there was a neat arrangement of notebooks, folders, a binder, and a pencil case. Pretty typical school supplies. Hueningkai felt a wave of comfort wash over him. He had expected another twist, another strange aspect of this out of ordinary school. But this seemed normal. At least, to him. 

The sound of a door opening made Hueningkai look up. He saw Soobin standing in the doorway, his head half poked into the room. When he saw Hueningkai, his face visibly relaxed. 

“Oh, hey.” Soobin walked into the room and looked around. “This is nice.” Hueningkai nodded. 

“Yeah, it’s really big. They probably did some sort of fancy magic to build it.” Soobin chuckled, smiling down at Hueningkai. 

“Probably.” He sat down on the bed opposite of the other boy. “Taehyun’s in our room as well too, right?” Hueningkai nodded. “Nice. I’ll admit, I was kind of scared to come here. There’s so many people.” 

“Me too!” Hueningkai immediately relaxed at Soobin’s words, knowing that at least he wasn’t the one one who felt nervous. “Honestly, what is this place?” Soobin nodded and laughed with him. They spent the next few minutes talking about all the weird things that they had discovered since arriving, like how the forest outside that seemed to be moving or how every once in a while they’d see a winged student flying down the hall. Their polite conversation continued until they heard a tentative knock at the door. Soobin got up to go open it. 

“Hello?” Another boy, much shorter than Soobin, came into the door and bowed respectfully. Hueningkai glanced him up and down and realized that he was a human, just like them. Despite his very short stature (especially in comparison to Soobin, who was a giant), he spoke in a voice that was much lower than either of theirs. As he stepped inside the room and into the light Huenginkai saw that he had light blonde hair and an array of freckles across his cheeks. “H-hi. I’m Felix.” 

“Felix,” Hueningkai said, sounding out the interesting syllables. “Cool name. Where are you from?” Felix just blinked back at him. There was an awkward pause before Kai realized. “Oh- right. You wouldn’t kn- um. Anyway. I really shouldn’t be talking, my name is different too. And I have no idea why.” Hueningkai rambled, cutting himself abruptly when he realized how weird he was being. He glanced down in embarrassment. Luckily Felix quickly broke the silence, giving Kai a smile. 

“It’s okay, I keep forgetting too. It’s just really strange. I feel like I’ve been alive for a while, but when I think back it’s just… nothing.” The other two boys nodded in agreement. Soobin fiddled with his hands, speaking shyly. 

“I agree. It’s like- even though I’m the same person, obviously, I still feel disconnected. Like-” 

“Like you’re living in someone else’s body.” Hueningkai jumped at the new voice and turned to see Taehyun standing behind him. He let out a strangled gasp of surprise and tried his best to cover it up. 

“Hey, Taehyun. Oh, this is Felix.” Soobin said, introducing the two. Taehyun gave Felix a respectful nod before returning back to their conversation. 

“So. We’re talking about our past lives, huh?” They all nodded, and Taehyun sighed. “Yeah. It’s annoying. I mean, who was past Taehyun and why did he choose to dye his hair red?” Taehyun reached up to tug at his colored hair, frowning. 

“It looks good, though,” Soobin protested, his hand reaching automatically to his own dyed hair. Taehyun shook his head.

“It attracts unwanted attention,” he said, his cheeks slightly pink from just thinking about it. Hueningkai remembered the intense reaction of their classmates when they had first walked into the homeroom. He also remembered the reaction of one particular classmate.

“Are you sure you don’t want the attention of anyone? Not even one particular person?” Hueningkai teased. Taehyun glared at him, and for a second his stomach churned with nerves. You went too far, he thought, you’re such an idiot, Taehyun’s never gonna be friends with you now. But then the tension dissolved into the four of them laughing, although Taehyun was still saying something in protest.

“No way. That kid seems annoying.” 

“Kid? I’m pretty sure everyone here is technically the same age,” Kai said, thinking about how everyone had looked to be just as old as him.

“And what age would that be? Zero? Negative one?” Felix asked, half joking, but he raised an interesting point. They all were quiet for a moment, thinking.

“Honestly, I feel like we can’t think too much about the technicalities of this all. There’s no logical way this is possible- it just is.” Soobin shrugged. “And it’s only for three years, and then we can go back to our normal lives and do whatever we want.” The other three nodded in agreement, thinking about that. Three years wasn’t really a long time in the grand scheme of things. And once they went back to the living world, they’d forget all of this, right? So nothing they did really mattered in the end, did it? Hueningkai’s eyes widened with a new thought. He could be as reckless and daring here as he wanted, live in the moment, and then be able to leave all the consequences behind. That kind of statement should have filled him with a boost of confidence, but instead it left his ego drooping even more. He shifted uncomfortable on the bed, bringing his knees up to his chest. Who was he kidding? He could fantasize about all that as long as he wanted, but in the end he knew that he was going to just play it safe. It was kind of pathetic, to be honest. 

Taehyun sighed and stood up. “Alright, I guess we should figure out sleeping arrangements. Hueningkai, based on how much you’ve fidgeted in the last fifteen minutes, you’re probably a sleepwalker. So bottom bunk for you.” Hueningkai opened his mouth in protest, but Taehyun cut him off again. “Soobin will probably hang off the bed with his unnecessarily long limbs, and no one wants to wake up to see a hand dangling in front of their face.” Soobin didn’t say a word, just nodding in agreement. “Probably bottom for you too. I can go with Kai, and then Felix are you okay with being with Soobin?” The blonde boy nodded enthusiastically. 

“Of course! I’m just happy that we have bunk beds. I don’t really care if I’m bottom or top!” Hueningkai bit his lip hard to stop himself from showing any reaction to what the boy said. From the frozen look on Taehyun’s face, he noticed as well. Hueningkai cleared his throat.

“Um. Anyway. I think we have lunch next?” Taehyun nodded.

“Yeah, but we still have some free time before it officially starts.” He flopped down onto one of the bottom beds, letting out a long breath. Turning his head, Taehyun suddenly caught sight of the backpacks. “Wait.” He opened the nearest one and peered inside. “Oh thank goodness. I would’ve been really mad if they expected us to just remember everything they taught us just by listening.” Taehyun pulled out the supplies and examined them. Nearby, Felix was looking at him with wide eyes.

“Seriously though. What did we even learn today? I mean, how are we going to have tests on- string?” Taehyun considered this, looking intently at the ground.

“Hm. I assume that it’ll be mostly conceptual. Like what we did today with the whole good versus evil thing in ethics. And for history, well, there’s too much history for us to be tested on specific facts. So considering that this is a school to prepare us for life, I suppose it’ll be like learning about the main parts of when humanity was doing well versus when they were in crisis. The whole point of this school is probably to get us to understand how to contribute more good to the living world, and those lessons will reside in our brains even if we lose our memories.” Taehyun finished with a shrug and went back to flipping through the notebook. Hueningkai was looking at him with shock.

“You got all of that from two classes?” Taehyun nodded. “Wow.” Hueningkai sat back and thought about what the other boy had said. So he’d have to focus more on- being morally good? What did that even mean? How were they supposed to- study for that? Hueningkai sighed and rubbed at his temple. He was tired of worrying about this. He stood up and looked at the others. “Okay, I guess I’ll go to lunch now. D-do-” The words died on his tongue. He stood frozen as the others blinked back up at him. Their lack of response only made it so much worse. Just leave already, a voice screamed at him. They don’t want you here. Hueningkai searched their eyes for something to ground him, but there was nothing but blank and confused stares. They had been having a nice conversation earlier, but what if that’s all they wanted to do? What if he was pushing things too far too fast? Hueningkai forced himself to breathe and calmed his racing thoughts. You’re being stupid, Kai, he thought. Why wouldn’t they want to go with you? Hueningkai forced the question out, his voice tight. “Do you guys want to go to lunch together?” It sounded dumb when he said it, and he crigned. But Soobin immediately went to go stand next to him, smiling.

“Sure! I wonder what kind of food they have here. Hopefully it won’t be too strange.” Hueningkai looked at Soobin’s warm eyes and tried to relax, but the panic from the previous moment still haunted him. The four of them stuck together as they walked down the hall, chatting about whatever came to their minds. It was comfortable, being surrounded by their kind words and the soft murmurs of other people in their rooms. It should have been a perfect scene, striding happily into the dining hall with three soon to be friends. So why did Hueningkai still feel so uneasy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sdjgk;a hyuka is gonna be sad for a lot of this fic get ready :(
> 
> I didn’t even plan for sana and tzuyu to show up honestly but it just- happened jsadlkj but yes there will be appearances from other kpop idols!  
> Let me know if adding azula is getting weird, it feels natural for me bc she basically lives in my head rent free, but it might be kind of random, i’m not sure. It’s all part of the plot (i think). I had to change the nirvana world from the original webtoon because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to explain it well. This new version is kind of half refund high inspired half atla inspired. 
> 
> i hope you enjoyed! comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	4. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! First of all, thank you so much for reading this fic. I never thought that my writing would be liked by anyone other than myself. 
> 
> When I started this fic, I was super excited to write about txt in this refund high au and I had all of these ideas for character development and multiple plotlines and everything, and so I somewhat rushed the publishing of it and ended up getting myself into something that I might not have been ready for :(. I rushed it so much that it ended up not turning out the way that I wanted it to. And so it's become harder and harder to write, since it just keeps straying from my original plan. That's why i'm (incredibly) slow on updates. But I won't abandon it! I considered doing so for like, a day, but I remembered how excited I was to write this in the beginning, and so I had to stick with it. 
> 
> So in return, please stick with me! This isn't my best writing (i always say that, but what is my best writing? she's yet to make an appearance) and sometimes it might be a mess, but I hope that doesn't ruin it for any of you. Anyway, here's my semi late update, I hope you all enjoy!

Yeonjun braced his hands on his knees, breathing hard as he stared at his sweaty figure in the mirror. He was the only one in the dance studio, but that was okay. It made mistakes less embarrassing. There was still one part of the choreography that he couldn’t quite get- whether it was because of his still developing dancing skills or his rushed choreographing, he wasn’t sure. The only way to tell was to try it again. And so he started up the music and got back into position, ignoring the protests from his aching muscles.

It had been about a month since they had started school at Refund High, and Yeonjun was happy to say that he was finally settling in. He had made friends out of his roommates, he was passing his classes, and he had almost come to terms with the fact that he was- you know, dead. This class- art- was his favorite. At the beginning of the year the teacher had told them about all the different art forms they could try- drawing, painting, singing, dancing, acting- whatever made them feel like they could express themselves fully. The goal, as he had explained, was to make sure that they had a space to let out any feelings that might have built up from their other classes. They were dealing with a lot of trauma, even if they couldn’t remember it, and keeping those kinds of emotions bottled up was never a good idea. 

To Yeonjun, dancing was more than just a medium for self expression. It was what kept him feeling alive in this death filled world. He knew as soon as he tried it for the first time that this was his element. This was what he was meant to do. The music seemed to engrave itself into his bones as he danced to the melody. He felt every note resonate deep inside of his heart. The movements came naturally, slowly at first, but gaining more momentum the more he practiced. It was like seeing a familiar face in a crowd of strangers. Every step, every turn, every leap brought him more comfort, a newfound sense of security. 

If he practiced hard enough, he could almost catch a glimpse of past Yeonjun. If the music played loud enough, if Yeonjun danced passionately enough, he could feel him there, the memories awakening to the feel of dancing. But that brilliant moment always slipped through his fingers too quickly, and he was left with more questions than answers. All he knew was that dancing was his one connection to his previous life, and he would cling to it as much as he could. 

The music ended and Yeonjun was once again left breathless, staring at his reflection with immense concentration. After a few moments of contemplating his mistakes, Yeonjun gave in and relaxed. There was a very small chance that he would ever be fully satisfied with his performance, and class was about to end soon anyway. 

Yeonjun grabbed his bag and went out into the hallway, looking for a place to change out of his sweaty clothes. He was headed to the bathroom when he heard the faint sound of music being played in the other dance studio. That made him stop. For the most part, the only people he knew that used the dance studios were him and Beomgyu, and he knew for a fact that today Beomgyu had decided to go play guitar instead. Yeonjun walked over to the door and peered through the glass. A small, red headed boy was inside, dancing intensely in front of the mirror. Taehyun?

Yeonjun could feel the heavy beat of the music from outside the room. Taehyun must have been blasting it as loud as he could. His movements were sharp and sometimes a little bit too heavy, but Yeonjun admired his isolation skill. The spontaneous nature of his dancing told Yeonjun that he was probably freestyling rather than doing planned choreography. Yeonjun waited until he finished his session before knocking on the door. Taehyun startled and looked behind him, eyes widening when he saw Yeonjun. The latter opened the door and ventured carefully inside, a friendly smile on his face. He somewhat knew Taehyun, but the two had rarely had a one on one conversation.

“Hey.” Taehyun blinked back at him. Yeonjun realized the awkwardness of the situation and tried to explain himself. “Sorry, I just heard the music playing and I was curious. I didn’t realize that you danced.” Taehyun shrugged, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. 

“I really don’t. I just wanted to try it today, but I’ll probably go back to my usual drawing tomorrow. I’m really not that good-”

“What?” Yeonjun cut him off quickly, waving his hands in disagreement. “No, you’ve got some skill. I mean, your popping is amazing. When I was watching you, I thought that you’d be really good dancing to something like this.” Yeonjun scrolled through his phone (another perk of Refund High- they all got free cell phones that didn’t seem to require wifi-) and picked out the song that he had been talking about. The heavy beat filled the room, curling around their ears as they both focused intensely. Yeonjun gave a little demonstration of what kind of dance he thought Taehyun should do, a series of krumping, popping, and isolations. He then gestured to Taehyun, asking him to try. The smaller boy gave it a try, looking a little unconfident but excelling nonetheless. Yeonjun’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. 

“See? You’ve got some talent. Oh, there was one more song that I thought of…” Yeonjun trailed off as he looked for it in his library. “I can’t remember the name, it goes something like…” Yeonjun sang it gently under his breath, still staring at his phone. “I can’t find it right now, but maybe I can send it to you later if you- you okay?” Taehyun looked frozen, his eyes stuck on Yeonjun’s face. Once Yeonjun made eye contact he looked away, staring at the ground.

“Um. Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just-” Taehyun paused. “I didn’t know that you could sing,” He said, lowering his voice. Taehyun refused to look up, shifting uncomfortably. Yeonjun’s eyes furrowed in confusion. That was what he was so worked up about? 

“Yeah, I’ve done a little bit of it before. Why, are you interested?” At that Taehyun’s head shot up, his eyes wide. 

“No. I mean, I’ve never done it. And I don’t- I don’t want to.” Taehyun tried to play it off, but Yeonjun saw the look on his face, that glimmer of excitement and hope. 

“If you’ve never tried it, then how do you know that you won’t like it?” Taehyun opened his mouth to respond but clearly couldn’t think of anything. Yeonjun walked closer. “Seriously, you should try it. You know the song I’m talking about, right?” Taehyun nodded. “Sing with me.” Yeonjun started to sing the melody softly, his eyes inviting Taehyun to join along. But the red haired boy just stared back, blinking. Yeonjun sighed and looked back to the ground. He didn’t understand why Taehyun was being so stingy about this. But just as he was about to give up, he heard a second voice join his. 

Yeonjun looked up to see Taehyun staring off into the mirror, his mind clearly somewhere else. But his lips were moving, singing softly. Yeonjun broke out into a grin, becoming more enthusiastic as he tried to encourage Taehyun to sing louder. From what he could tell, he had a good voice. Completely on pitch, a strong texture with an edge to it. Still, he refused to let his voice rise above Yeonjun’s. Whenever Yeonjun tried to lower his own volume, Taehyun did as well, with a hint of panic in the quick switch. They stayed like that for a moment, just singing together alone in the practice room. Finally Yeonjun had to stop. 

“Alright, I don’t know the words past that part.” He slid his phone back into his pocket and glanced up at Taehyun, a gentle smile on his face. This seemed to be a very sensitive subject to Taehyun, and Yeonjun didn’t want to intrude. But he couldn’t let him walk out the door without telling him how good he had just sounded. “But hey, you’ve got a really good voice. Honestly, I think you should try that before I give you another dancing-” 

“Nope.” Taehyun practically flinched at his words. “That’s- no. I don’t- I don’t want to.” Within a heartbeat Taehyun had grabbed his bag and hurried towards the door. “I don’t do singing.” Yeonjun was taken aback. He hadn’t expected for Taehyun to react with that much disgust. Taehyun hesitated at the door, looking back at the other boy with conflict written all over his face. “Thanks for helping me with dancing, though. It was fun.” Yeonjun was still too shocked to respond, staring at the now empty entranceway. After a moment he grabbed his own bag and headed into the hallway. Did he just hate music? Was Yeonjun’s voice really weird or something? Yeonjun tried to shake off those thoughts. Taehyun’s reaction had been strange, but he couldn’t get caught up worrying about it. They weren’t really friends, after all. His friends were more like-

“Yeonjun!” A body barreled into him. Yeonjun let out a surprised grunt. He made eye contact with a pair of shining brown eyes. Beomgyu. “People stopped to hear my music today. I mean, they also all said that I was handsome- but I think they liked my playing too.” 

“That’s great, Beomgyu.” Yeonjun and Beomgyu had hit it off pretty well from the start, both very friendly and outgoing. Beomgyu was still a bit more mischievous and wild, but Yeonjun was happy to go along with his antics. 

“Do you think that people would maybe like to hear a song that I wrote? Or am I totally going off the rails?” Beomgyu had stopped walking and now looked at Yeonjun nervously, biting his lip. Yeonjun grinned and threw his arm around his shoulders.

“Are you kidding? Of course! I didn’t even realize that you were writing songs.” They continued their walk down the hallway and back to the dorms. Beomgyu laughed shakily. 

“Well, I haven’t finished one yet. But I might get there soon.” 

“That’s really cool, man. What’s it about?” Yeonjun couldn’t imagine summoning enough motivation to write a piece of music. With dancing, it came naturally, but writing lyrics with emotion and meaning just made his mind go blank. 

“Um. I haven’t really done much of the lyrics yet, but it’ll probably be some classic love song or something.” Beomgyu looked a little sheepish as Yeonjun laughed. 

“Right, taken from all of your experience as a lover boy,” He teased, still smiling as Beomgyu shoved him away, ears pink.

“Shut up! Why’d you phrase it like that? You’re so weird.” By now they had reached their dorm, Beomgyu turning the doorknob and heading inside. They were greeted, as usual, with a loud shout.

“Hey! What took you guys so long?” Within a second Yeonjun was faced with a wide grin and glittering eyes. It was Wooyoung, one of their other roommates. 

“We didn’t take long. You two just leave class really early,” Yeonjun said, pushing past Wooyoung to get to his bed. He flopped down onto the covers, letting out a tired sigh. He might’ve worked himself a bit too hard today, based on the way his limbs groaned at him. 

“You would too if you had history,” Wooyoung protested. From behind the other boy Yeonjun heard an exasperated sigh. 

“Wooyoung. We just had ethics, not history.” Wooyoung turned around, revealing a fourth whitish blonde haired boy staring at him icily. Yeosang. Wooyoung barely even blinked at the way Yeosang was glaring at him, grinning back. 

“Whoops. Same thing.” Yeosang squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing a hand against his temple.

“It is absolutely not the same th- nevermind.” Yeosang sat back against the wall, going quiet again. Beomgyu went to sit beside him. 

“Who was that other guy you were with when I saw you earlier? He had like a black mullet or something.” Although they shared a room with Beomgyu and Yeonjun, Wooyoung and Yeosang weren’t in the same class as them. They were in their first year as well, but they were in Class 3, so their schedules didn’t overlap. Yeosang sat up, a glint in his eye. 

“That’s San. He’s the one that Wooyoung’s been trying to bang for the past- mmf!” Wooyoung dove at the blonde haired boy, tackling him against the bed. Beomgyu’s eyes widened and he covered a grin with his hand. 

“Got it. You know, Wooyoung, I’m a pretty good wingman. Sana and Tzuyu started dating a few days ago, and that was pretty much all my doing.” Wooyoung shook his head, hiding his face in his hands. Meanwhile, Yeonjun was still a little bit in shock. 

“Y-you mean you have a crush? On a guy?” Wooyoung looked up a little bit, his cheeks still a little red. Yeosang took the distraction as a chance to tease him once again.

“Not a crush. He is massively, immensely, gigantically infatuated with him. The other day he thanked Woo for picking up his pencil and he responded with ‘you too,’ and then proceeded to let out the most violent string of curses-”

“Shut up!” Wooyoung yelled, pushing Yeosang down once again. He turned back to Yeonjun with a sheepish look on his face. “But um, yeah. I- I like him. Why, is it weird because he’s a guy?” Yeonjun immediately felt guilty from the way Wooyoung now looked at him with nervousness. He didn’t mean to make the other uncomfortable. 

“No, no, it’s fine. I just-” Yeonjun didn’t really know how to explain the emotions that were going through him right now. He hadn’t really considered dating someone while he was at Refund High, and the idea sent a tidal wave of fear through him. Especially the idea of dating a guy. His logical mind was telling him that it was fine, that there was nothing wrong with liking who you like. But some faint instinct inside of him was telling him to stay away from that kind of thinking. 

“Do you have your eye on someone, Yeonjun?” Beomgyu was just mocking him, a grin on his face. But there still was a face, brief as it was, that flashed into his brain. No, no, no, he thought. He couldn’t let himself go there. The minute he let himself slip, the minute he gave in and did everything that he wanted, that would be when he ruined everything. Sometimes you have to sacrifice what you want in order to keep everyone happy. And so Yeonjun jumped up, grabbed his bag, and walked as quickly to the door as he could without looking suspicious. 

“We should probably go to class now. Mindfulness, right?” Beomgyu gave him a weird looked but followed, grabbing his backpack as well.

“Yeah. I guess we could go now.” And so the two of them headed out of the dorm, bidding goodbye to Wooyoung and Yeosang. And as Yeonjun listened to Beomgyu ramble about his new song, he tried to forget that face that had appeared in his mind, and the horrible sense of dread that came with it.  
⋯  
Soobin walked into the classroom where they had their mindfulness class, surprised to see that Yeonjun and Beomgyu were there earlier than him. Usually they slid into their seats right before the bell rang. Soobin took his usual seat nearby, looking down at his hands as he fidgeted nervously. Normally Hueningkai would be with him, but the other boy had gone to the bathroom as they were going to class. He should only take a few minutes, but it felt much longer to Soobin. Glancing upwards, the purple haired boy found Yeonjun subtly looking over at him. Soobin tried to give him a polite and relaxed smile even as his stomach churned. They had been relatively close when the school year had started, but ever since Yeonjun had started hanging out with Beomgyu and the more popular kids, they had quickly grown apart. Now Soobin barely even talked to him besides a gentle greeting if they happened to pass each other in the hallway. 

“Sorry I’m late,” Someone whispered next to him, and Soobin turned to see Hueningkai sliding into his desk beside him. Soobin smiled brightly at him. 

“It’s okay,” he assured, ruffling Hueningkai’s hair affectionately. Their entire dorm room had naturally become pretty good friends over the past month. Felix was in a different class, but he still hung out with the others at lunch and during their free periods, telling them about the other people he had met at the school. But Soobin, Taehyun, and Hueningkai were together for most of the time. And while Taehyun and Kai had more of a wild, love hate relationship, Soobin just found both of them to be extremely cute. However, if he ever said so to Taehyun, he might get put in a choke hold. So instead he directed most of his affection to Kai, pinching his cheek or hugging him whenever he got adorably embarrassed or shy. Soobin broke his attention away from Hueningkai’s cute antics and nodded at the chalkboard where their teacher was currently sitting in front of. “What do you think we’re going to be doing today?”

Mindfulness class had certainly had one of the least predictable curriculums at Refund High. Soobin went into it knowing nothing about what he could be facing. At first, they did simple breathing and meditation exercises, and their teacher told them about the importance of being “connected with one’s mind.” No one had really taken it seriously at first. Even Soobin had to admit that he slacked off a bit in those first weeks. But that all changed once their teacher told them about soul weight.

Their homeroom and ethics teacher had mentioned soul weights a bit, but the students didn’t get a full idea of what it was until mindfulness class. One day he had taken them each out into the hallway one by one and told them to step on a scale. Soobin thought that he was just being weighed for his body mass, but the number on the scale seemed to be way off from what he should have weighed. Once all of their numbers had been recorded, their teacher finally told them what it meant. 

“That scale was unlike any scale that you may have encountered in your past life.” Their mindfulness teacher did this a lot, speaking in circles rather than getting straight to the point. Soobin didn’t always appreciate the constant suspense. “That scale measured not your physical weight, but the weight of your soul. How can a soul have weight, you ask? Well, think of it as not necessarily having weight but more as being weighed down by other things in your mind. Trauma, past relationships, lost hopes and dreams, anything that your mind might be having trouble letting go of. In order to pass this class and graduate to Year 2, your soul weight must be under a certain amount of kilograms.” Soobin felt his mouth drop open. That was a requirement for them to graduate? Their soul weight? That seemed unfair, considering that they had no idea what their mind might be holding onto. 

“There are a few ways to lighten your soul weight that are relatively simple…” But Soobin had zoned out, already worried that his soul weight was going to be abnormally large and that he was never going to pass this class and then never graduate and be stuck here in the afterlife for the rest of eternity.

In the present, it seemed like Soobin’s fears were coming true.

“Can I see a few of you out in the hallway?” Their teacher held up a clipboard and began to read names off of a list. “Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Hueningkai, and Taehyun?” Soobin’s stomach dropped to the floor. He got up shakily and followed the teacher out the door, combing his mind for anything that he might’ve done wrong. He had always smiled at the teacher and said good morning, but maybe it came off as rude? Maybe he wasn’t participating enough? Was he not trying hard enough? Once they were all lined up in the hallway, backs against the wall, the teacher turned to face them with an apologetic look on her face. 

“Normally I wouldn’t want to do this.” Well, that certainly didn’t help to calm Soobin’s nerves. “But for some reason the five of you have above average soul weights. And I’m not sure that you’d be able to get them down in time to graduate unless you get some special attention.” Soobin’s hands fluttered, finally settling on running through his hair. He tried to disguise the panic rushing through his veins, but from the worried look the teacher gave him, it wasn’t working. She gave him a smile, her eyes soft. “It’s okay. You aren’t the first ones. Sometimes we let ourselves hold onto things without realizing it. It’s not always your fault.” Soobin took a deep breath and nodded. It was going to be fine. He was going to pass. He still had a whole year to improve. He had to keep telling himself that. 

“Now, since you five are technically behind the others, I’m going to let you take the next few classes to work on your soul weights. You should be okay in terms of catching up afterwards, the material isn’t that complicated. So you can either find an empty classroom or go outside, as long as you stay within school bounds. I made a list of a few more intense exercises you all can try if you’re really struggling, but for now stick with our usual ones. Is that okay?” The five of them nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly. “Great. Just make sure you come back for the last five minutes of class, okay?” And suddenly they were all alone in the hallway. The five of them. For the first time since that very first day, before they even knew what Refund High was. Soobin, embarrassed despite them all being in the same situation, couldn’t meet any of their eyes. Taehyun sighed and pointed towards the door.

“So. Should we go outside?”  
⋯  
Soobin shifted uncomfortably on the grass, feeling the blades prickling against his skin. The air was humid, but there was a constant breeze flowing by. Looking up at the others, he caught Yeonjun’s gaze on him once again. He automatically looked away, pretending to be studying the sky. He didn’t know why the other boy kept staring at him. Was there something on his face? Soobin swiped at his face just to be sure. Next to him, Taehyun examined the paper that their teacher had given to them, reading it over and over again. 

“Okay. She told us to stick with the methods that we’ve already learned. So that’s just meditation and exercising. The best strategy would be to try exercising first, since we can just switch to meditation whenever we get tired. I grabbed a jump rope on my way out-” 

“Oh my god. You’re actually going to do all of this soul weight stuff?” Beomgyu glanced up at Taehyun from his position on the ground, rolling his eyes. Taehyun’s head snapped towards him and he narrowed his gaze.

“Yes. Do you plan on graduating? Or would you rather be stuck here forever?” Taehyun’s voice was tight, clearly holding back his annoyance. Beomgyu shrugged, putting his hands behind his head to prop himself up.

“Maybe. It seems pretty nice so far. What’s so great about our actual lives anyway?” Beomgyu observed Taehyun with a glint in his eye. Soobin looked between the two of them, Beomgyu holding back a grin and Taehyun silently fuming. He had a feeling that Beomgyu was just saying this to get a reaction out of the other boy, purposely pushing his buttons. And he’d certainly succeeded. Now Taehyun was shouting.

“What’s so great? It’s our lives, dumbass!” Taehyun lunged at Beomgyu, and Soobin immediately got up to hold him back. Taehyun was extremely strong, but his smaller height made it easier for Soobin to block him. 

“Calm down. He’s just teasing you,” Soobin murmured to the red haired boy. Taehyun still glared over Soobin’s shoulder, but eventually turned away.

“Fine. I’ll be over there,” Taehyun pointed to a different tree that was far, far away from the others, “making sure that I don’t have to repeat our first year here.” And then he was walking away from them, never stopping to glance back. Soobin was a little shocked. Taehyun seemed to react ten times more extremely when it came to Beomgyu. Soobin sighed. Well, maybe it would be for the best if the two of them stayed far apart. Soobin sat back down on the grass. He was still a little distracted, so he didn’t notice who he had sat down next to until that person was right up next to him.

“They really can’t talk without fighting, huh?” Soobin jumped as someone whispered right next to his ear. Whipping his head to the side, he saw that it was Yeonjun, who had leaned over until his face was right beside the purple haired boy’s. Soobin froze at their close proximity. He could feel himself getting flustered, but he tried his best to hide it. It was embarrassing, really, how incredibly shy he was. 

Unfortunately Yeonjun simply leaned even closer, bringing a hand up to ruffle at Soobin’s hair. “Sorry, did I startle you?” Soobin just blinked. Yeonjun smiled, his eyes crinkling up endearingly. He moved away and Soobin relaxed. A moment later, however, Soobin felt Yeonjun’s eyes on him once again. Soobin looked over to see Yeonjun biting his lip, his eyes flickering from Soobin’s face back down to the ground. Finally, he spoke. “You’re cute when you get flustered, Soobin.” 

Soobin’s cheeks went up in flames. He immediately turned away from Yeonjun, hiding his flushed face. He locked eyes with Hueningkai, who was looking at them with a raised eyebrow. Soobin widened his eyes at him, trying to signal for the other to do something to change the now awkward tension in the air. But Hueningkai just blinked, his face blank. Soobin sighed. He looked back at Yeonjun, who wouldn’t meet his eyes, and tried to give him a small smile, dimples on display.

“Y-yeah. But Hueningkai here is cuter, right?” Soobin scooted closer to Hueningkai, who leaned away with a distasteful look in his eyes, shaking his head. Soobin just grinned and moved closer. “Yes, you are.” Soobin pinched Kai’s cheek affectionately. He lowered his voice so only the two of them could hear. “Please, go along with this.” Kai seemed to understand and nodded. He let Soobin run a hand through his hair and poke at his face. Soobin only stopped when he was sure that the attention was finally off of him. He looked at the patch of grass that now sat between him and Yeonjun and relaxed. Still, he stayed clinging to Hueningkai, ignoring the confused look that he got from the blonde haired boy. Soobin felt a little guilty for rejecting him so obviously. He generally liked affection and skinship. Just not with very handsome practical strangers. 

The whole time, Beomgyu had been watching their exchange with a furrowed brow. “You guys are weird.” He stood up and stretched, looking around the forest. “What are we supposed to be doing? Running around or something?” Without waiting for an answer Beomgyu took off, circling around the trees, leaping up to grab at their branches. 

“No, you can’t- Beomgyu! You have to stay within the boundaries!” Yeonjun scrambled to his feet and went after the black haired boy, reaching out his arm to stop him. But Beomgyu kept dodging away, laughing. From his spot by the tree Taehyun was glaring at them, peacefully doing his own exercises without seeming to break a sweat. Damn, Soobin thought. He really is strong. Soobin was so caught up in watching the others that he didn’t notice Hueningki wriggle out of his grasp and walk away until he heard his tentative voice call out from behind him.

“Hey, Soobin? What’s that?” Soobin whipped around to see Kai pointing at something in the forest, his eyes wide. Soobin followed his gaze and caught sight of a small, white shape writhing in the bushes. It looked- kinda cute. Its body was round and covered in a white fur, with four stubby legs. It seemed small and relatively harmless, but its eyes told a different story. They were a bright purple and full of fire, looking at Soobin and Hueningkai with a distasteful look. Soobin couldn’t really see something so small and innocent looking posing any sort of threat to them, but he didn’t really want to take any chances. 

“Let’s just leave it alone.” Soobin grabbed Hueningkai’s arm and tried to pull him away, but the other wouldn’t budge. He seemed almost attracted to the creature, not able to take his gaze off of it. Soobin frowned. “C’mon. I don’t want to get in trouble.” He tugged on Kai’s arm again. After a moment Hueningkai finally turned away, but his eyes still looked a little hazy. “You okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just- I don’t know. It felt like it was calling me, for some reason.” Hueningki look distracted, constantly glancing behind them and back towards the forest. 

“It’s probably just in your head.” Soobin said mindlessly as they walked over to where Taehyun was sitting. Hueningkai nodded.

“Yeah, it’s probably nothing. A weird coincidence. I doubt we’ll see one again.”

Well, that was a lie.

Two weeks later, the five boys were assigned to go back outside again. Their soul weights still weren’t going down. It made sense after the first day, since they spent most of the time just talking. But there seemed to be no change even after they worked their absolute hardest. It was frustrating, to say the least. 

“What else is on the sheet that the teacher gave us?” Hueningkai peered over Taehyun’s shoulder at the paper. Taehyun scanned it once more, his brow furrowed. 

“We’ve pretty much tried everything. The only thing left is a memory capsule.” That made them all perk up.

“A what?” Hueningkai asked.

“A memory capsule. When you eat it you remember something about your past life.” 

“Then why can’t we just eat all of our memories?” Yeonjun said, sitting up. “Wow. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d be saying.” Soobin giggled and looked over at him, expecting to see his warm gaze. But Yeonjun wasn’t looking anywhere near him. Soobin’s smile dropped. 

“It’s only for special circumstances. Generally you’re not supposed to have any of your memories until the very end of your third year.” There went their good mood. Yeonjun flopped back down onto the ground and Taehyun threw the paper down. They all sat in silence for a while, staring up at the clouds. No one really knew what to do. It didn’t look like there was anything they could do to get their soul weights to go down, but their passing grade pretty much relied on it. Soobin groaned and covered his face with his hands. He turned to say something to Hueningkai only to find him gone from his place on the ground.

“Kai?” He said tentatively, glancing around. He wasn’t anywhere in sight. Soobin felt panic build up inside of him but pushed it down. He had to be around here somewhere. Soobin got up and walked closer to the forest, looking behind each tree and bush, hoping to find the other boy somewhere. But he was only met with a few fallen leaves and a whisper of a breeze. Soobin frowned, letting out a huff of air. He was about to head back to the others when he heard the sound of pounding feet behind him.

“Soobin!” Hueningkai hurtled by, grabbing him and pushing him back towards the school. “Go back, we have to- it’s coming- it attacked-” Hueningkai was barely speaking coherently, but Soobin understood his meaning, He held onto Hueningkai in case he was hurt and together they raced out of the forest. When they reached their clearing they both collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard. Taehyun sat up, alarmed.

“What happened to you two?” Soobin gestured to Hueningkai, waiting for him to explain. 

“There was- I saw something move in the forest. It kept looking at me, and for some reason- I really wanted to follow. It looked kind of like the thing Soobin and I saw in the forest a while back, but it was darker. It had this kind of blackish and purplish aura around it. I didn’t realize how far we had gone into the forest until-” Hueningki winced at the memory. “Until it attacked me. I was pretty shocked. It managed to scratch me a few times before I ran away.” Hueningkai held up his forearms, which now had a few long red marks on them. Soobin grabbed at his wrists and pulled them toward him, examining the injuries. 

“They don’t look that bad, but for all we know that creature could have had poison in its claws or something.” Hueningkai paled and Soobin tried to reassure him. “It probably doesn’t! But we should check to be sure.” The others voiced their agreement. And so they all headed back towards the school, murmuring about what that creature could be. 

“You said that it had purple eyes?” Beomgyu asked. Hueningkai nodded. “Hm. Seems familiar.” Soobin was quick to make the realization. So far the only other person they had seen with purple eyes was Azula. And she had mentioned that she had powers. What if that creature was related to her world- or Azula herself?

“No, there’s no way.” He said to himself. Eye color was too faulty of a connection. They needed more proof before they could come to any conclusion.

“Oh, there’s our history teacher. Sir!” Taehyun called, hurrying down the hallway towards him. The other four of them watched as Taehyun explained their situation to the teacher, pointing back at Hueningkai. Within seconds the history teacher was running towards them. Soobin startled. He couldn’t see the adult’s eyes, but Soobin still felt the fear emitting from him in all of his mannerisms. 

“Bring Hueningkai to the infirmary immediately. I’ll take care of that creature, but don’t go outside anymore unless you’re with a teacher. And-” The history teacher had started to move past them, but glanced back behind him. He lowered his glasses to reveal dark, swirling black irises that had a hint of familiarity to them. “Don’t tell anyone about this. No other students. This stays between us, got it?” Soobin’s mouth flapped open and closed, but he managed to nod along with the others. The teacher nodded in satisfaction and turned away, his black robe waving from the sharp movement. The five of them stood in the hallway, watching him rush out into the daylight and hurry away into the forest, disappearing from view. Soobin looked at the others with wide eyes, at a loss for words. He made eye contact with Yeonjun for the first time that day and found his fear reflected in the other’s eyes as well. Their mutual feeling was clear: what have we gotten ourselves into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention that blue hour is my new favorite thing? It's my new favorite thing. the concept and the crop tops and- i cannot. when it drops there's gonna be a lotttt of freaking out in these notes. 
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	5. five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY SORRY THIS IS A LITTLE LATE I WAS DISTRACTED BY BLUE HOUR
> 
> i felt like i gained ten years writing this chapter and it's shorter than all the others- whoops- well- i'll justify that by saying that a lot of stuff happens
> 
> Also lmk if i’m getting any details about refund high wrong i read it many months ago and i can’t go back to check if i’m right, so- taking some creative liberties here haha

If the other classes at Refund High seemed weird, then physical education was at a whole other level. At first it seemed like it would be somewhat normal. They focused mostly on their fitness or other skills like swimming or running. But their teacher always took their exercises to another level. He made every one of their activities about survival, stressing the intensity of each assignment even when the students were taking it casually. It was annoying for Taehyun to have to go from writing notes about the history of Nirvana to having to sprint across the field as if he were being chased by a tiger. But he made himself do it anyway. If there was a big, burly man with a bushy grey mustache glaring at you and telling you to run- you’re most likely going to listen. 

Today they were doing something slightly more complicated. They were at the pool, but it didn’t look like they were going to be swimming. Blocks of concrete had been placed in the water, poking out at different heights above the surface. A black mat sat on top of each one. Taehyun was pretty sure he knew where this was going, but he wasn’t sure if he liked it.

“This is an exercise for your agility.” The PE teacher’s voice boomed across the echoey pool tiles. “You will have to leap from block to block, all of which are different sizes and heights. If you fall, it’s no big deal here. I already taught you all how to swim, and we won’t let you drown or anything.” Comforting words, Taehyun thought. “But don’t get too comfortable! If you were crossing an actual river with a raging current, there would be no lifeguards there to help you…” Taehyun zoned out as soon as he started talking about survival again. Really, what would they need these skills for? The teacher had mentioned something about it preparing them for some of their final tests at Refund High, but that didn’t make any sense. Why would their graduating rely on physical ability? It seemed unfair. If Taehyun’s hard work got ruined because he screwed up his backstroke, he would probably go insane. 

Luckily, Taehyun was pretty good at PE. He hadn’t expected it, after constantly getting teased by Soobin and Hueningkai about his small frame (he wasn’t short, they were unnecessarily oversized- and how come they never mentioned Felix, who was definitely shorter than Taehyun?). But during the first week of classes, Taehyun realized that he had a relatively fit body. He had naturally great stamina and strength, and any skills that he didn’t already know he was able to pick up pretty quickly. So even as some of the other students murmured nervously about this new task, Taehyun was feeling relatively at ease. He didn’t foresee himself having awful agility. Even if he struggled at first, he would be fine. Taehyun imagined the worst case scenario. He would jump and immediately miss the block, falling into the water. A little embarrassing, but he would recover. As long as he tried again.

“I’m gonna fall.” Taehyun looked over to see Hueningkai standing next to him, shaking his head with a bemused expression on his face. “The other day I fell out of my chair just from laughing. There’s no way I can do this.” Taehyun smiled and rolled his eyes.

“You’ll be fine. Just don’t scream mid jump and scare the rest of us, yeah?” Taehyun had already had enough incidents involving the other’s dolphin like screech that always seemed to come out of nowhere. 

Hueningkai grinned. “No promises.” 

“We’ll just have to make Hyuka go first.” Soobin came up from behind the black haired boy and put his arm around him, leaning in to squish his cheek. Hueningkai squeaked and squirmed his way out of the other boy’s hold, his cheeks pink. Soobin turned his attention to Taehyun, who immediately backed away.

“Absolutely not.” Soobin managed to pull the other into a half hug before Taehyun broke away. Soobin had been getting more open with them, which was great. He seemed much more comfortable and was showing more of his charming personality. However, along with that newfound openness also came a lot more skinship and affection, something that Taehyun was not always in the mood for. It was funny, though, how Soobin couldn’t let anyone besides them two get close to him without becoming a flustered mess. It was his duality, Taehyun supposed. 

“Can I go first?” Their chatter of the other students was interrupted by someone’s loud voice ringing across the room. When Taehyun turned he saw that it was Beomgyu. He froze and narrowed his eyes. What was he up to now? Their teacher, on the other hand, was delighted at Beomgyu’s enthusiasm.

“Of course, young man! Step right up!” Beomgyu made his way to the pool edge and stepped carefully onto the first block, which was level with the tiled floor. He paused for a moment and glanced over his shoulder, scanning the crowd of students. When he caught sight of Taehyun he grinned. 

“Are you watching, Taehyunnie?” Taehyun’s blood boiled at the sudden nickname, and he just glared back at the other boy. Beomgyu didn’t seem to mind, however, turning back around and started to jump from block to block. He made his way relatively quickly across the first few, which were all close enough for him to practically step from one to the other. But as the blocks got further and further apart, his jumps became bigger and his landings shakier. Everyone was mesmerized as they watched him go, the room uncharacteristically quiet. Taehyun found himself letting out a breath of relief after a particularly close call, Beomgyu’s foot landing just barely on the edge of the mat. He startled at how invested he was in the other’s performance. He shouldn’t care whether or not Beomgyu made it through. Next to him, Hueningkai giggled.

“He’s really trying to impress you, huh?” Taehyun’s head whipped to stare at the taller boy, who met his stare with an amused glance. Taehyun processed what he had just said and curled his expression up into one of disgust, shaking his head.

“What? No, he just wants to annoy me.” From next to Hueningkai, Soobin chimed in.

“But he looked at you right before he went. And he called you Taehyunnie.” Taehyun felt his cheeks grow hot at the mention of the nickname. Hueningkai nodded in agreement.

“Either way, he clearly wants your attention.” Taehyun considered this statement. It was true that Beomgyu seemed to have a weird attachment to Taehyun, always arguing or trying to one up him in class. But those things were the reason that Taehyun found the other annoying, and he always thought that the feeling was mutual. But if what Hueningkai said was true- it didn’t make any sense. Taehyun watched Beomgyu as he was stuck on one block, trying to gauge the next jump. Nearby, Taehyun could see Yeonjun and Sana cheering for him. Daniel stood at the start of the blocks, about to begin his own attempt. Why would Beomgyu want Taehyun’s attention when he had already gained the trust of so many others? 

At that moment, Beomgyu made his final jump. Despite his determination to be nonchalant, Taehyun still found himself holding his breath. Beomgyu’s foot hit the edge of the mat and he leaned forward, trying to pull himself on the block. But there was nothing to grab on to, and so he flopped backwards into the pool. The entire class made noises of disappointment while Daniel laughed.

“Nice try, loser. I’m gonna beat you.” Daniel launched himself onto the first block and began his own run. Beomgyu’s head popped up through the surface, his hands coming to wipe at his eyes. He swam over to the ladder and pulled himself out. Yeonjun handed him a towel and he rubbed at his hair before glancing over at the crowd of classmates. Something about his bright eyes, or the way his hair was slicked back, or the way his clothes were now sticking to his body made Taehyun feel uneasy. He didn’t want Beomgyu to see him like this. Taehyun grabbed Hueningkai and pushed him in front of him, subtly hiding behind the other’s tall frame. Hueningkai squawked in protest.

“What are you-” 

“Shhh,” Taehyun poked him, looking pointedly at Beomgyu. Hueningkai sighed and shook his head.

“Fine. Just don’t put me in the middle of you two after this, okay?” Taehyun mumbled his agreement, still trying to see if Beomgyu had given up looking for him. He caught a glimpse of the black haired boy standing and laughing with Yeonjun and Sana, and he relaxed, although his stomach still twisted with some… bad feeling. Maybe he should’ve let Beomgyu find him. Taehyun hit lightly at his forehead. Why was he thinking like this? Hueningkai’s random declaration was messing with his brain. He didn’t like Beomgyu, and the other was set on annoying him for all of eternity. That was just how it was.  
⋯  
After changing out of their clothes- their wet clothes, for some (but not Taehyun, he made it through the whole course without falling)- the whole class was called back to homeroom for a quick meeting. Despite asking around the class for information, Taehyun still didn’t really know what the meeting was about. 

“Come in, have a seat everyone.” The homeroom teacher gestured for them all to come inside. Taehyun took his usual seat in the center of the classroom next to Hueningkai and Soobin. The back of his neck prickled and he had the feeling that someone was staring at him. Even without turning around, Taehyun had a feeling that he knew who it was. So he chose to pretend that he didn’t notice, refusing to give Beomgyu any of his attention. 

“Alright, let’s get started.” The homeroom teacher clapped his hands together gently to get everyone’s attention, waiting for the chatter to die down. “It’s time to talk about one of the most renowned traditions here at Refund High. The Red Moon Ball.” That sent a wave of murmurs through the classroom. “It happens at the end of the month, during the lunar eclipse when the sky turns red- hence the name. It’s pretty much your typical school dance. There’ll be food, dancing, activities, and you’ll get to choose your clothing from our inventory. It’ll be very fun.” Ironically, the teacher said the last sentence with possibly the solemnest face Taehyun had ever seen. “But there is some planning that we have to do first. I’ll let the class president take it from here- Jihyo?” The said girl popped up from her seat and walked to the front of the class, a big smile on her round face. 

“Hey everyone! As a way to build class spirit, we get to design our own t-shirts. I’ll be running the logistics for the most part, but I want to hear your input. So if anyone has any ideas for the design…” Her voice faded away as Taehyun contemplated what he thought about this dance. He hadn’t really considered doing things at Refund High just for fun. He wanted to be in and out of here as fast as possible. So he didn’t really care that much about making friends or being social. Looking around the classroom, Taehyun realized how few people he actually knew. At least he had Soobin and Kai. Jihyo finished her speech by telling everyone how to reach out if they had any ideas, and the homeroom teacher took over once again.

“Before we go any further, does anyone have any questions?” A few desks away from Taehyun, Sana’s hand shot up. “Yes?”

“Is this the kind of thing that we can bring dates to?” Taehyun froze. Were people actually dating while they were here?

“Sure. It can be a romantic event, or just something for friends. Whatever you want.” Sana squealed and tugged on the arm of the girl next to her, who Taehyun vaguely recognized as Tzuyu. So they were dating? Taehyun didn’t have a problem with that, but he just didn’t understand. Why would you get attached to something if it’s going to be gone in a few years? Why give yourself that false hope?

A few more students had some questions about the specifics of the dance. Finally, the teacher told them when the next class meeting about this would be, and then they were dismissed. Taehyun grabbed his bag and stood up, turning to say something to Kai and Soobin. 

“Actually, can you three stay back? And you two as well.” The homeroom teacher had come up behind them. Taehyun felt that familiar pit of dread in his stomach. The teacher led them to his desk, pulling out a small black case and laying it in front of them. 

“I was told to give you all a memory capsule for your mindfulness class. Something about your soul weight?” Taehyun looked over at Soobin and Kai, his eyes wide. The three of them had a silent conversation with their eyes, communicating how surprised and excited and also extremely scared they all were. Taehyun thought that getting memories back was only for special cases. Maybe they were more important than they thought.

The teacher handed them each their memory capsule one by one. Taehyun expected it to be cold, like a small glass ball. But when the teacher pressed it into his hand, it felt… warm. He could feel a small vibration, as if it were alive and bursting with what it held. 

“Do we just swallow it?” Beomgyu was holding it up and peering at it. 

“Putting it in your mouth should be enough to get the memory.” 

Taehyun glanced at the capsule skeptically. He had expected it to be more flashy. But it looked like he was just holding a small pearl in his hand, too dull to even look exciting at all. But as he held it closer to his face, he saw that the surface was… moving. It really did feel like he was holding a live creature in his hand. 

“Let’s do it.” Yeonjun said, looking at Beomgyu. The two of them put their capsules in their mouths and closed their eyes. Taehyun glanced over at his friends. Hueningkai seemed eager, but Soobin still looked a little wary. Taehyun tried to give him a reassuring look, but it was hard when he himself was a little nervous. He looked over at Yeonjun and Beomgyu, who were still expressionless. They seemed fine, he told himself. Nothing to be scared of. Just his past that was likely very traumatic and haunted his soul up until this day. Taehyun shook his head to clear those thoughts. He couldn’t overthink this. Casually, as if it were a breath mint, Taehyun popped the memory capsule into his mouth, feeling his eyelids close on their own.  
⋯  
A younger version of Taehyun- maybe about seven years old- was sitting at a shiny black piano, his hands moving across the ivory keys. Even at such a young age, it was obvious how skilled he was. His feet swung happily beneath the piano bench, his eyes crinkling with a half smile.

“Taehyun-ah, it’s time to practice piano!” The sound of his mother’s voice boomed through the house. The sound of her clattering footsteps got nearer and nearer. “Taehyun- oh, you’re already in here.” She had short brown hair that fell right below her chin. She was tall, dressed in a white sweater and black dress pants. She laid a jeweled hand on Taehyun’s shoulder, peering at his music. “What are you playing? That’s not your normal piece.” 

“It’s my own piece! I wrote it, see?” Taehyun took his hands off the keys to point at the penciled in notes on the paper. 

“O-oh.” His mother’s hand tensed on his shoulder. “Did your teacher ask you to compose something?” 

“Nope. But the other piece is so boring. This one even has words!” Taehyun began to play his little song, singing little “la’s” and “da’s” along the way. When he finished, he turned back to his mother, grinning. She gave him a tight smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“Why don’t we stick with the Beethoven, okay?” Taehyun’s smile slowly fell and he nodded, turning back to the piano. He began to play again, the notes perfectly in time but still falling flat in the air. The spark that had been there before was gone, replaced with dull responsibility. His mother took a seat on the ivory couch behind him, looking at her son with worry in her eyes. She crossed her legs and rubbed at her temple, sighing. A few minutes later the sound of a door opening could be heard from far away. Their house was clearly quite big. His mother immediately jumped up and walked briskly out of the room. Taehyun’s playing slowed down as he looked to see why she had left so quickly. Eventually he took his hands off the keys and stood up, creeping over to the doorway. He tiptoed his way over to the top of the stairs, catching a glimpse of his mother and father standing together in the hallway.

“...music...hobby… he looked so happy though…” They were speaking too quietly for Taehyun to hear everything, but he heard enough to figure out what they were talking about. His father shook his head.

“Only son… can’t let… failure…” Taehyun’s blood ran cold. He didn’t know why his father looked so angry, but he knew that it had to be because of him. 

“Taehyun-ah!” He heard his father’s voice calling for him and felt a wave of fear pass over him. He wanted to be alone right now. He ran down the hallway and into the nearest closet, shutting the door and throwing his body against it. He heard his parent’s footsteps thumping up the stairs, into the room with the piano. He heard their confused voices talking to each other. He held his breath, praying that they wouldn’t come looking for him. Or maybe he hoped that they would? Either way, he still felt a mixture of both relief and hurt when he heard them give up and head back downstairs.

The next day his composition notebook was gone. Taehyun felt the coldness shiver down his spine when he saw the gap on the music sheet rest. Tears prickled in his eyes but he held them back. His father was at work, and his mother was holed up in their home office, the phone constantly ringing with calls. Neither one of them could have seen the pain that they had unknowingly caused their son. 

His breaths coming faster than normal, Taehyun ran downstairs to where he knew that the recycling bin was. He reached in as far as his short arms would go and dug around. His hand brushed against familiar paper and he pulled it out. There was his song, still written in the same shaky handwriting. Just looking at it brought a fresh wave of tears. Taehyun tore out that first page, wanting to at least save the hard work that he had put into that song. He walked slowly back to his room and slid the paper into a crevice on his bookshelf. It might still be there today. Taehyun hadn’t touched it since. The only songs he wrote were in his head, whenever he needed a medium to let go of the feelings that he had kept bottled up inside. He never was stupid enough to write them down ever again. Writing them down made them real, and once they were real they could be destroyed.

The memory ended, but Taehyun kept his eyes closed.  
⋯  
“Do you think they knew what memories they were giving us?” Hueningkai said, leaning back in his chair. They were back in mindfulness class again, supposed to be working on their soul weight. But really, how were they supposed to focus after what they had just gone through?

“Definitely. Otherwise we would’ve just gotten some boring memory that wouldn’t have had any effect on our souls.” Yeonjun took a pencil and spun it on his fingers. “That is, assuming that none of you got a boring memory.” 

“Mine was my first day in high school, I think,” Soobin mumbled nervously. Taehyun looked over at him in surprise. So their memories hadn’t been from similar ages. 

“High school? Mine was fifth grade at the latest,” Hueningkai said, voicing Taehyun’s own thoughts. 

“I think mine was even later than Soobin’s. I mean…” Yeonjun trailed off, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. “Would you believe me if I said that I might’ve been- a singer in my past life? I was performing for a crowd of people.” Taehyun looked at him, raising an eyebrow. It wasn’t the fact that Yeonjun was a performer that surprised him. He just wondered what could’ve happened to someone like him to cause such an early death. 

“Ay, I’m friends with a celebrity!” Beomgyu said, throwing his arm over Yeonjun. “My memory was a piano recital or something. I sang a song for my relatives and they all clapped for me. So clearly I’m on the same level of success as Yeonjun here.” That earned a laugh from the others and a glare from Taehyun. So Beomgyu got to have a family that was supportive of his music, whereas Taehyun got his music thrown in the trash? 

“Speaking of, you should all come to the recording studio next art block. I wrote a song and I want to see if people like it.” Beomgyu looked around at them, his gaze lingering on Taehyun, who was looking pointedly at the floor. 

“That’s really cool, Beomgyu.” Soobin said, his eyes crinkling up into crescents as he smiled at the other boy. Beomgyu laughed nervously.

“Thanks. I’m hoping that it goes well. A lot of people have shown interest in it, so the pressure’s kind of on.” His comment sent a dagger into Taehyun’s heart. Beomgyu not only charmed people with his music in his past life but in this one as well. He immediately came back with a retort, feigning nonchalance.

“Even if the song absolutely sucks, everyone will like it because it’s you singing it. They only stick around because you’re handsome.” The air in the room turned cold. Taehyun waited a moment before realizing that something was wrong. Looking up, he saw Beomgyu frozen, his eyes cold and staring at him. As soon as they made eye contact Beomgyu broke up, leaping up from his chair and yanking his bag up from the floor. Taehyun’s eyes widened. 

“Shit. I didn’t mean that. Your song is probably great-” Taehyun’s voice cut off as Beomgyu breezed by him and out the door. Taehyun waited for him to throw back one last teasing comment, something to piss Taehyun off like he always did. But there was only dead silence to fill the void that Taehyun had just unknowingly created.   
⋯  
Beomgyu tore down the hallway, barely glancing at all of the students he passed. A teacher was about to stop him and ask if he was okay, but Beomgyu pretended like he hadn’t heard. He didn’t know where he was going. He just kept running, foolishly hoping that maybe when we turned the next corner all of the pain would disappear. Eventually he reached an empty part of the building and slowly came to a stop, breathing hard. He fell against the nearest wall and slid down until he was against the floor. He put his head and his hands and took in a shaky breath. Taehyun’s words kept ringing through his brain. Because you’re handsome. Even if the song absolutely sucks. 

It wasn’t like he hadn’t considered that possibility before. There were times where people seemed a little bit too eager to get close to him. There were times where Beomgyu was pretty sure that no one was listening to what he was saying, just staring at him and trying to flirt. But he never let himself complain. Why would he complain about people liking him too much? But after weeks and weeks of never being taken seriously, Beomgyu had enough. For a few days he stopped being so flirty with everyone. He backed away from anyone who got too close. And, of course, that made everything worse. Rather than just taking the hint and letting Beomgyu have boundaries, people stopped talking to him altogether. The message must have spread that he wasn’t as “fun” as he used to be. So it was either let people play around with him like a toy for entertainment, or be slowly rejected by the people that he had trusted as friends. 

Which is why he lied about his memory. It wasn’t anything like he had described. There was no piano recital or loving relatives. Just him sitting on his couch watching some YouTube video. Beomgyu had no idea what to make of it. And everyone else seemed so enlightened by their memory, while Beomgyu was just more confused. And bored. He was boring. So he made up a different memory, one that would provide a joke and give his past life some sort of excitement. To be honest, he was scared to find out what he might’ve been like in his past life. Would any of his friends still like him if they knew how many times he had to fake this overly energetic personality? 

And then there was Taehyun. The only person who Beomgyu knew would never fall at his feet. The only person who Beomgyu felt like would actually know him, listen to him, understand him. Beomgyu didn’t know how to act around him. His usual charms didn’t work on the other. He had decided on just making sure that Taehyun was always paying attention to him- maybe if he looked at Beomgyu long enough, he’d actually start to like him. But this morning, he saw him blushing at something that Hueningkai had said. The two of them had always been close- friends, Beomgyu had assumed- but maybe there was something more. And then, in homeroom, another girl had been staring at him. Beomgyu wanted to shoot her a nasty look, but he had no reason to. Taehyun wasn’t his, he had to keep reminding himself, no matter how painful it was. 

And now. The look on Taehyun’s face when he had said those encroaching words- maybe Beomgyu had been wrong about him. He only saw Beomgyu as a handsome face, just like everyone else. Beomgyu reached up to his cheek, his hands coming back wet. He wiped at his face with his sleeve, staining the cotton with endless tears. Stop crying. The faint sound of footsteps could be heard down the hall, and Beomgyu froze in fear. No one can see you like this. Stop crying. Stop it. Luckily, the footsteps stopped before they got close enough to hear Beomgyu. But then the voices started.

“Are you sure… can’t scare the other students...” That intrigued Beomgyu. He shook off his previous thoughts and shakily got to his feet. He creeped towards the voice, stopping just at the hallway corner. He pressed his ear as close as he dared and listened. 

“Yes, I’m sure. It was a dark spirit. A small one at that, but there’s no way it came alone.” Beomgyu recognized the homeroom teacher’s voice and remembered the incident from a week ago, with that creature that Hueningkai had found. Was it really that serious? 

“Sometimes there are glitches.” Beomgyu’s eyes widened. That was Azula speaking. He took yet another step forward. For some reason, she had been on his suspicious list for a while. Something about a supposedly all powerful dragon being at the school with humans like him didn’t sit right with him. “We don’t know that it’s...” she lowered her voice, “...Dante.” 

“They weren’t glitches, Azula. There were deliberate holes in the protective wall. The only person who has enough power and motive to do that is him.” Protective wall? Beomgyu remembered the beginning of the year when they were told to always stay within school boundaries. So that was legitimate. The school had a wall around it to protect the students- but from what? 

“How would he have gotten out?” The fear in Azula’s voice send shiver’s down Beomgyu’s spine.

“I don’t know. But we can’t let him get too far.” Beomgyu tried to lean forward even more, but ended up tripping over his foot. Luckily, he caught himself, but the echo of his shoe hitting the floor rang out across the empty hallway. The two voices immediately went silent. 

“There’s someone coming. Let’s go.” The footsteps went in the opposite direction, slowly fading out into nothingness. Beomgyu stayed clutching the wall, trying to collect his thoughts. Who was Dante? Why was he so dangerous? And what did that have to do with that thing that Hueningkai saw? Beomgyu let his feet carry him back to class. He was already dead. So why did it feel like his life was in danger?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: you got this, it’s just normal teen dialogue. you’re a teen. Write naturally.  
> Me: …*writes like a fifty year old man*
> 
> writing this made me so sad bc of all of the things we just learned about beomgyu and how he has to pretend to be happy,,, pleASE sending you all my love mr bear (also sorry his pov was very short this time i didn't mean to)
> 
> Alright it’s now nanowrimo time so I’m gonna be doing two projects for next month (i’m a little self sabotaging haha)- updates might be a little,,, sparse,,, but then school will be on break, so i’ll make up for it!
> 
> i hope you enjoyed! comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	6. six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry this is really late (it's also 2am rn and this hasn't been read over at ALL and i got logged out of my account and i don't know my password- it's been a long night) but this chapter is 7k so there's a lot!

“Who knew that our school also had a whole department store in it as well?” Taehyun said, tilting his head up to look at the giant displays of different outfits. They had decided to choose their clothing for the upcoming ball during one of their free periods. The clothing was already put together in a set, with shoes and accessories and everything. Hueningkai was thankful for that. The only thing that he could remember wearing was this uniform; there was no way he had enough fashion sense to piece together a whole school dance outfit. Although, looking up at the endless assortment of clothing, he still felt pretty lost. 

“Oh gosh. How do they expect us to choose?” 

“I mean, we can probably narrow it down based on size. You’re not fitting into any of that smaller stuff, you’re gangly as f-” 

“Hey!” Hueningkai shouted, glaring at Taehyun. “Then you’d better head over to the smaller section, Taehyunnie.” Taehyun’s eyes lit up with shock and he pushed Hueningkai’s shoulder playfully.

“I’m taller than half the school!” Hueningkai shrugged.

“But you just give off tiny energy, you know? Like Soobin looks tall no matter what context you see him in.” Hueningkai gestured towards the purple haired boy, who was staring up at the clothing displays with awe in his eyes.

“Hueningkai’s right. About the suits,” Soobin clarified, glancing back at them. “There’s a ton. I don’t care that much about how I look, but- I don’t even know where to start.” The three of them stared silently at the wall of clothing, observing. Finally Taehyun pointed to one of the suits.

“That one kind of matches your hair, Soobin.” The said suit consisted of a grey jacket and pants with a subtle plaid pattern, light purple lines crossing over the material. A matching purple v necked sweater was paired with a grey shirt and purple tie. It all looked very coordinated. And it did match Soobin’s purple hair. Soobin looked the outfit over and nodded.

“Should I try it on?” Hueningkai and Taehyun voiced their agreement and Soobin went to take it down from the wall. To their left there was a changing room with a full length mirror on the wall. Soobin pulled aside the curtain and stepped into the room. The other two waited outside, still observing the other outfits. Hueningkai glanced over at Taehyun, who was looking up and down the wall with a dull look in his eyes.

“Any idea what you want?” Taehyun shrugged.

“Not sure. Probably just something simple, like that.” He pointed to a turtleneck and jacket combo, a classic black and white. Hueningkai nodded in appreciation. Taehyun’s red hair would look good in contrast to the simple binary colors. 

“You seem absolutely ecstatic about the dance” Hueningkai joked. Taehyun gave him a sheepish smile. 

“Sorry. It just feels unnecessary to me. Plus, aren’t dances usually a…” Taehyun lowered his voice, “a romantic thing? So what reason do we have to go?” Hueningkai felt a flush creeping up his neck. From the way Taehyun was talking about romance, Kai had a feeling that he was looking down on anyone who developed feelings during this weird between life and death period. Unfortunately, Hueningkai feared that he may have accidentally fallen into that trap. And he had hoped that the ball would be a place for him to figure out those feelings. 

“How does this look?” Hueningkai turned around to see Soobin standing shyly outside of the changing room, tugging at the suit and looking down at himself. Hueningkai’s mouth went dry. The sweater gave him a more casual school boy kind of look, and wow did he pull it off. He managed to look classy and relaxed at the same time. The fitted jacket highlighted Soobin’s broad frame and his slim waist, something that was usually hidden by the baggy nature of the school uniform. Hueningkai’s eyes traced his figure from his shoulders all the way down his long, long legs. The blush that had been already set on Kai’s cheeks deepend. 

Why did he have to fall for Soobin of all people? He really hadn’t meant to. Sure, he had noticed how handsome Soobin was from the very first day. He had dismissed that as just being an appreciation for someone else’s good looks, not necessarily in- that way. But then Soobin had to go and always be so nice to him, looking at him with big concerned brown eyes or giggling in such a cute way that Hueningkai couldn’t help but feel a flutter in his chest. It had been hard for the past month, trying to dodge Soobin’s more frequent skinship without seeming suspicious. Because Hueningkai didn’t want to get too hopeful, too attached. He knew that he didn’t belong with Soobin- it felt wrong. But he couldn’t help that one tiny part of his brain from wondering. 

“You look great!” Taehyun said, giving Soobin a thumbs up. Soobin turned his gaze to Hueningkai, who was still trying to disguise how affected he was by the other boy. 

“Y-yeah. It’s good.” Soobin turned around to look at his reflection in the mirror, and Hueningkai let out a breath that he had been holding. As Soobin inspected the suit in the mirror, Taehyun continued his conversation with Kai. 

“Anyway, I didn’t realize how many people in our class are dating. You know, like Tzuyu and Sana?” Hueningkai nodded. He had seen the two girls holding hands in the hallway one time and figured it out from there. Plus, it wasn’t like Sana was exactly quiet about how much she liked Tzuyu.

“Yeah. And those two dancers- Wooyoung and San? I think they started dating recently. Even Felix has a crush on someone.” Taehyun’s eyes bugged out.

“Felix? Really?” Hueningkai laughed.

“Yeah. No need to look so surprised. How did you not realize? I mean, there are-” Kai looked at Taehyun and raised an eyebrow. “Certain people that seem to be clearly attracted to you. Are you that oblivious?” Taehyun opened and closed his mouth, his cheeks pink. 

“W-well,” he spluttered, “You can’t say that about me when Soobin is just as oblivious to Yeonjun’s flirting.” Hueningkai’s teasing smile dropped. Yeonjun. He knew that the other boy liked Soobin as well. Hueningkai had just been denying it because he was afraid of what it would mean for him if he admitted it. Yeonjun was the “it” boy of their class. He excelled in their classes, he was a dancing prodigy, all the teachers and the students adored him. Hell, he even seemed to be a celebrity in his past life. And who was Hueningkai but an awkward screw up who didn’t have the guts to make any sort of move on Soobin? 

“What did you say?” Soobin asked, looking between the two of them with a furrowed brow. Hueningkai panicked.

“Nothing! I’m gonna try this on, okay?” Hueningkai grabbed the first suit that he saw off of the wall and dashed into the changing room. 

“Wait! My clothes are still-” Soobin called after him, but Hueningkai pretended that he didn’t hear. He laid Soobin’s uniform right outside the curtain before sitting against the wall, taking a deep breath. In his moment of panic, the scene from his memory capsule came back to him.

It had started off happy. He had been riding a bike with an older boy- his brother, he assumed. They were just going around in circles in their driveway, laughing and whooping into the summer air. But then Kai’s tire had hit a slightly too big rock, sending his bike awkwardly into the air. Since his brother was riding in front of him, Hueningkai crashed into him and they both tumbled onto the asphalt, a mess of limbs and bike parts. The chaos had caught the attention of their parents, who rushed over to help. They had helped both of them to their feet and his mother had dug in her purse for some bandaids. Kai’s knee had scraped against the ground and was dripping blood. His brother had a small cut on his elbow and hand, perhaps a bruise on his shin. But his mother only had two bandaids. And they both went to his brother. Hueningkai was handed a flimsy tissue to wipe up his own blood. When he pressed it against his cut it stinged angrily. But it was still nothing in comparison to the pain of being rejected. Being the second choice. 

The second choice. That’s all Hueningkai was to Soobin, really. Hueningkai blinked away the coming tears and diverted his attention towards the random suit that he had chosen. It was a simple three piece with a black and white plaid pattern. Hueningkai threw it on carelessly, his fingers fumbling over the buttons. When he looked down at himself all he saw was the pant legs being too short, the arms too tight, the waist too small. It didn’t fit him at all. Hueningkai felt a fresh wave of tears. Nothing fit him. He tore the clothes off his body and yanked on his uniform. He blinked away his tears and forced himself to smile, hoping that he looked normal.

Back outside, Soobin and Taehyun were gone. Hueningkai felt his heart sink as placed the suit back on the rack and wandered out the door. He assumed that they had left him, so he was pretty surprised when he saw them standing right outside the entryway, talking with Jihyo. 

“Out of the options in the poll that I sent out, this was the winning design.” She was holding a box full of light blue t-shirts. Hueningkai approached and peered at the box from behind Taehyun’s shoulder. Taehyun took the shirt that Jihyo handed him and held it up so they all could see. The shirts were patterned with a simple plus sign that was colored half white half yellow. Beneath the symbol was the word “ETERNITY” written in white block letters. When Taehyun turned the shirt around, they all saw that the names of everyone in their class had been printed on the back.

“It’s not much, but it’ll be nice to have something just for our class, you know?” Jihyo said, examining the shirt herself. Soobin gave her a friendly smile.

“No, I like it! Eternity. That sounds cool.” Jihyo nodded.

“We wanted something to emphasize the fact that- even though we’re only here for a few years, we can still make friendships that will last an eternity. Who knows? You and your closest friends might meet each other in your next life.” 

“That’s a good way to think about it,” Soobin said, looking off into the distance thoughtfully. Hueningkai watched him, a frown forming on his face. Soobin wasn’t looking at him or Taehyun as he thought about people he wanted to meet in his next life. So that meant- the only other person he could care about that much- maybe Hueningkai was overthinking it, but in the moment it felt as clear as day. Soobin and Yeonjun were meant to be together- soulmates for life- and Hueningkai was just the annoying side character who got in the way. 

Hueningkai couldn’t take it anymore. He left without a word, turning his back on his friends and walking down the hallway back to the dorm. 

“Wh- Kai? Where are you going?” He heard Taehyun’s confused voice calling out for him, but he pretended not to hear. 

“Ning?” He flinched at Soobin’s use of the nickname. He picked up his pace, hearing his shoes tap faster and faster against the smooth floor. As soon as he turned the corner he relaxed, looking back to see if they had followed him.

They hadn’t. 

“Hyuka? Don’t you have class soon?” Felix looked at him with wide, concerned eyes. Hueningkai brushed him off. 

“It’ll be fine if I miss it for today.” Felix furrowed his brow.

“Are you okay?” He tapped Kai’s arm and made him make eye contact. Hueningkai quickly disguised his hurt, giving Felix a small smile.

“I’m fine. Just tired. If the others ask, just say that I was up too late last night studying.” Felix still hesitated for a moment but he eventually nodded. Hueningkai pulled back the covers to his bed and crawled in, curling up into a ball. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to stop the images of a certain purple haired boy from making their way back into his head. He tried to focus on his breathing, doing his best to clear his mind. After a few minutes of calming his mind, he was able to fall asleep. 

“Is he okay? He seemed off today.” Hueningkai awoke to hear Taehyun’s voice whispering above his bed. 

“He said he was just tired.” Felix’s deep voice mumbled back. Hueningkai heard Taehyun sigh, probably looking down at him with a concerned stare. Hueningkai feigned sleep, keeping his breathing steady and eyelids closed. 

“It wasn’t just me, right Soobin? He was acting weird.” Hueningkai tensed at Soobin’s name. He fought to keep his facial expression neutral. 

“Hmm? Yeah, I guess.” Soobin sounded distracted. Hueningkai’s heart sank. He couldn’t even be bothered to be worried about him. His voice sounded far away, probably sitting on his own bed while Felix and Taehyun hovered over him. Probably scrolling on his phone, liking Yeonjun’s posts. Or maybe he was texting him. Hueningkai clenched his fists at the idea of them suddenly becoming friends. They wouldn’t stay friends for long. And the next step was- 

He didn’t want to think about that. Jealousy burned in his veins, hot and painful. Why wouldn’t Soobin look at him, notice him? He was probably only friends with him out of pity. He probably looked disappointedly at his name on the list outside their door, hoping for someone else. What more could Hueningkai do to be good enough for Soobin? He always greeted him with the brightest smile. He waited for him outside of every class. He paid attention in class when Soobin was zoning out so that he could help the other study later. He pretended that he didn’t like sweets so that he could give Soobin part of his lunch. Just to see that smile on his face when he accepted it. He even went along with Soobin’s weird plan- to make Yeonjun jealous or something- that one day in mindfulness class. It was almost scary how much he would do for Soobin. And yet he still couldn’t climb his way up to being the first choice. 

“Okay. Well, we should let him sleep.” Hueningkai heard the creak of the headboard as Taehyun climbed up to his bunk and the scrape of a chair against the floor as Felix sat down at his desk. He waited to see if Soobin would say anything. He didn’t.

The worst part was, Hueningkai couldn’t be upset. He understood why Soobin would choose Yeonjun over him. Yeonjun shone as brightly as his blonde hair. He was smart, social, talented, handsome, and yet never let it get to his head. Everyone in their class wanted to date him- how could Hueningkai blame Soobin for wanting to as well? And he certainly couldn’t be mad at Yeonjun. He couldn’t help how perfect he was. He didn’t know how much he was hurting Hueningkai just by- existing. And if he did, he would step down in an instant. Hueningkai knew he would. That was just the humble, selfless, perfect person he was. So really, what could Hueningkai do but wallow in his own sadness?

He finally let the tears fall down his cheeks, wetting his pillow. His shoulders shook with silent sobs. He muffled a hiccup with his hand. He didn’t want to alert the others. He rolled over until he was facing the wall, pulling the blanket almost over his face. 

He couldn’t see Soobin sitting at his desk, copying his notes from their previous class into Hueningkai’s notebook. He didn’t feel the t-shirt from the class president that Soobin had laid gently on his bed. He didn’t see the worried eyes that Soobin had laid on him as he did so. He didn’t feel his concerned gaze returning again and again to Hueningkai’s curled up form on the bed. He didn’t realize how much the other cared, even when he wasn’t obvious about it. 

No, all Hueningkai saw and felt was Soobin’s eyes on Yeonjun and the ache in his chest that accompanied it. So he made the ultimate decision to skip the Red Moon Ball. He knew that Yeonjun would be there. He knew that he would probably look beautiful. He wasn’t sure if he could handle the pain of being caught in their fairytale romance once again. He’d pretend to be sick or something that day. He’d spend the hours sleeping and moping in his room while his classmates went out and had fun. It sounded miserable, but he would be okay. One day he’d get over Soobin. One day.  
⋯  
“Taehyunnie, you look so handsome.” Soobin looked Taehyun up and down and hummed in appreciation. The white turtleneck complimented his elegant features well, and the fitted suit made his shoulders look broad without taking away from his lithe and graceful figure. Soobin looked down at himself. He still felt a little silly. He would’ve felt more comfortable in something basic, but his friends had assured him that he looked amazing. He reached a hand up to ruffle at his hair.

“Stop, you’re going to ruin it.” Taehyun grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand down. Felix’s friend Hyunjin was apparently an expert in hair (his own hair looked amazing- long and a shiny golden color- so Soobin and Taehyun had trusted his judgement), and he had helped them style their usually messy bangs for the dance. Taehyun’s was curled up to reveal some of his forehead, a few strands falling expertly over his face. Soobin’s was down and slightly wavy, giving him a softer look. From the way Felix had jumped up and down and started clapping when he saw them, Soobin assumed that they looked pretty good. 

“I wish Kai were here.” The other boy had unfortunately woken up with a bad cold, locking himself in the bathroom for half an hour before coming out and declaring that he felt too sick to go. Soobin had been reluctant to leave him alone, but Hueningkai kept insisting, evading Soobin’s hands whenever he tried to feel his forehead for a fever. He had seemed a little flushed when Soobin looked at him. So Soobin had left him curled up in a few warm blankets with a warning to take better care of himself next time. 

“Taehyun! Soobin!” They both turned to see Jihyo coming towards them, waving. “I’m so glad that you guys came! C’mon, let me show you around.” She beckoned them to follow her through the trees and towards the sound of the crowd. The trees opened up into a large clearing. A dance floor had been set up in the middle, and there were already friends jumping around together to the booming bass of the music playing. Others just lingered around, holding drinks or plates of food. Jihyo pointed to a table set up to their left. “That’s the food and drink table. Behind it there’s a place to take photos if you want. And on the other side there’s some tables and chairs set up if you want to sit down. Stay tuned for my announcement, we’re going to take a photo as a class. Are you guys good?” Taehyun and Soobin nodded. “Great! Have fun!” Jihyo hurried away to go greet some other people that had just arrived, leaving Taehyun and Soobin standing awkwardly alone. 

“Um. Are you hungry, or…” Taehyun trailed off. Soobin glanced over at the table. Typical party food and a bowl of punch that was quite an- interesting color. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Maybe not right now.” They stood in silence for a little bit longer. Someone cleared their throat from behind them. Soobin realized that they were blocking the path into the dance and panicked. “Uh- let’s just go this way, Taehyun. Sorry,” he mumbled to the person that was trying to get past them. 

“Where are we going?” 

“I have no idea, but maybe if we just keep walking with purpose people won’t look at us,” Soobin whispered. Taehyun chuckled.

“Good plan.” They eventually ended up next to the dance floor, where a small crowd had gathered. They all seemed to be watching someone. Even with his height, Soobin still had trouble looking over to see who it was. 

“Oh! Soobin!” Soobin heard his name being called and startled. He caught sight of someone’s hand waving and followed it to see a grinning freckled face. Felix. He immediately relaxed and made his way over to the other boy, grabbing Taehyun to come with him. As they got closer Soobin saw a second boy clinging onto Felix, hugging him like a koala. 

“Is that the boy he has a crush on?” Soobin whispered to Taehyun. Taehyun observed the other boy for a moment before shaking his head.

“I don’t think so. Seems too platonic.” Soobin hummed in agreement.

“Hey guys!” Felix smiled and gestured to his friend, who was still hugging him tightly. “This is my friend Chan. Chan, you can let go. I’m not going anywhere.” The other boy reluctantly obliged, unwrapping his arms from around Felix. He then gave Soobin and Taehyun a dimpled smile.

“Hey! I’m Chan. Felix told me about you two.” Felix looked over at them and frowned.

“Kai still insisted on not going?” Soobin and Taehyun nodded. Felix sighed. “Oh well.” He looked gloomy for a moment before lighting up with a new thought. “Did you see who was out there dancing? He’s really good! C’mon, you can see from here.” Soobin made his way closer to Felix and peered past the other people. He caught sight of the person on the dance floor and froze.

“O-oh. It’s Yeonjun.” 

“Yeonjun?” Taehyun nudged his way next to Soobin. He raised his eyebrows in appreciation. “Wow. I mean, I knew he was good, but I didn’t realize that he was- that good.” Although he was trying not to show any signs of it, Soobin had to agree with Taehyun. Yeonjun’s moves were coordinated and yet casual at the same time. His energy and facial expressions drew everyone in. His movements had a flow to them, as if he were doing a choreography despite clearly just freestyling. And on top of all that he was having fun. He grinned at everyone’s reactions and did his best to show off when he could. Soobin could see the fatigue setting in on his features, but his smile never dropped. He was looking around at everyone in the audience with an expression of sheer joy. Eventually his gaze got closer and closer to Soobin. WHen he realized that Yeonjun was about to catch sight of him, Soobin immediately turned away. 

“Soobin!” Ah, jeez. It wasn’t like Soobin didn’t like Yeonjun, but for some reason the other always made him a little bit uncomfortable. He never knew how to act around him. He could feel his muscles tensing as Yeonjun tapped him on the shoulder. Still, he turned around and gave him a tight smile.

“Hey, Y-” Now that he was up close, he had a better look at what Yeonjun was wearing. His look was more casual and messy, with a silky shirt half tucked into his suit pants. His hair was brushed back with strands falling over his forehead, and- were those colored contacts? Soobin felt his mouth go dry at the way Yeonjun was looking at him, his eyes so bright and pretty and Soobin just wanted to drown in them. He broke out of his trance and cleared his throat, looking away. “H-hi, Yeonjun.” He wasn’t really sure why Yeonjun had run after him. Outside of mindfulness class, they didn’t talk much.

“I’m glad you came.” Yeonjun’s energy from earlier had clearly faded away, and now he was shifting awkwardly on the grass. Soobin searched for something to say.

“Your performance was good,” he said, gesturing back at the dance floor. Yeonjun looked back at the floor, a soft smile on his face.

“Thanks. Yeah, I um-” Yeonjun took a shaky breath. “Sorry for ending so abruptly, but I saw you and-” there was a blush on his cheeks now- “that sounds so cheesy, but-” Soobin cocked an eyebrow, finding it amusing how the other boy couldn’t seem to get his words out. “You looked really handsome and I had to tell you.” Yeonjun fidgeted, barely meeting Soobin’s gaze. His nervousness gave Soobin a burst of confidence, and he leaned closer, enjoying the way Yeonjun’s blush deepend.

“Yeah? You think I look good?” Yeonjun’s mouth opened and closed before he gave up on speaking and just nodded vigorously. Soobin smirked. “You don’t look too bad yourself.” Soobin was planning to keep up this new persona as long as possible, but when he saw Yeonjun gulp and look away he immediately dropped it. The last thing he wanted was to make the other uncomfortable. Yeonjun shook his head as if to clear it and turned away from Soobin, making the latter’s mood deflate a bit.

“Th-thanks. Anyway, I should be looking for Beomgyu. He said that he would be here soon.” Soobin scanned the crowd as well, but finding him wasn’t as easy as finding Taehyun’s bright red hair or listening for Hueningkai’s voice. Speaking of Taehyun, Soobin hadn’t seen him since he had started talking to Yeonjun. Where did he- oh.

“I think I found Beomgyu.” Soobin stared right at the black haired boy but didn’t move.

“Wait really? Where?” Yeonjun tried his best to follow Soobin’s gaze but still couldn’t see his friend.

“Right there. Next to Taehyun.”  
⋯  
Taehyun was so, so screwed. One minute he was watching Yeonjun’s dance performance and talking to Soobin, the next both boys were gone, leaving Taehyun stranded and confused. He saw Felix and Chan a few feet away and started to go over to them before a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him away. He let out a yell of surprise and pushed them off- maybe a little bit too hard, based on the way that the other person groaned in pain. 

“What the-” Taehyun yanked his arm out of the other’s hold and spun to look at him angrily. But the minute he laid eyes on them his heart dropped to his stomach. A familiar pair of deep brown eyes were blinking back at him. “B-beomgyu.” They hadn’t spoken since the incident. The past week had been full of Beomgyu giving him the cold shoulder in the halls and in class. Taehyun had been constantly on the verge of going to talk to him, but he had no idea what to say. Seeing him now, in full beauty- yes, he could admit that the other boy was handsome- it was quite a shock. Beomgyu was wearing an embroidered navy and white suit jacket that complimented his pale skin and dark hair. But the real killer was the silk choker that he was wearing around his neck. Taehyun couldn’t stop staring at the way it lay so elegantly against the smooth plane of his throat, moving when he swallowed harshly. Taehyun tore his eyes away and looked back up at Beomgyu’s face, whose features were accented even more with a touch of makeup. 

“I- um.” Beomgyu said, breaking eye contact and looking to the side. He took a breath and continued. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” Taehyun nodded, still half frozen. “Last week, after I- you know,” he said, clearing his throat. Taehyun’s face burned. “I was out in the hallway and I overheard some… interesting things. From Azula and the history teacher. And I just thought I should tell one of you.” That intrigued Taehyun.

“Like what?” 

“Something about a protective wall and how there were holes in it. Someone named Dante? And it was related to the creature that Hueningkai saw when we were outside. Remember?” Taehyun nodded. 

“So that creature got through the- protective wall? That must be why we can’t go off of school grounds. I would assume that Dante is another creature like that who got through onto school property.” Taehyun thought he was being reassuring, but Beomgyu didn’t look satisfied.

“Dante is definitely more than a creature. They made it sound like he was the one destroying the wall. They said something about how he might have escaped, like they were holding him somewhere because he was too dangerous. They sounded scared of him.” Taehyun could see the fear in Beomgyu’s eyes. When he looked down he saw that the other’s hands were shaking. Automatically Taehyun reached out and grabbed his hands, holding them between his own to still them.

“Hey, it’s okay. These people have been working at this school for who knows how long, I’m sure they know how to handle it.” Taehyun remembered the history teacher’s reaction to the creature, how quickly he had rushed out the door to go find it. And that had been a tiny animal, seemingly harmless. “It’s probably not a big deal.” Taehyun remembered Hueningkai running out of the forest, fear flashing in his eyes. “They wouldn’t let us have this dance if they thought that it was going to be too dangerous.” Taehyun remembered the history teacher looking them all in the eye and making them swear they wouldn’t tell anyone. “Really, what’s the worst that could happen to us?” You can still die, even when you’re at Refund High. And if you do, there’s no second chance. Your soul fades into nothingness, a black abyss for the rest of eternity. At this point Taehyun needed someone to comfort him back, but he kept a smile on his face for Beomgyu.

“You’re probably right” Beomgyu’s face was decorated with a slight pink blush, his expression uncomfortable. Only then did Taehyun realize that he was still holding his hands. Around them, people were staring. Taehyun’s eyes widened when he realized how this must have looked, like they were- together. His gaze flew back to Beomgyu, who was worrying one of his lips between his teeth. He immediately drew Taehyun’s attention down to his mouth, down to his pretty pink lips that got pinker has his teeth scraped over them. Taehyun wanted to see them red and swollen, possibly while they were on Taehyun’s own-

Taehyun ripped his hands away, ruining the moment. Screw Beomgyu and his new suit for making him feel this way. His stomach was still churning from the sudden whiplash. When he had the courage to look back at Beomgyu, he found the other staring at the ground. Taehyun’s heart sank. Whatever connection that they had just built back was gone. Cold, careless Beomgyu was back, giving Taehyun a flippant stare.

“Well. I’ll see you around.” Beomgyu turned and started hurrying away, leaving Taehyun feeling panicked all of a sudden. He rushed forward and grabbed the other’s hand, pulling him back towards him.

“Wait!” Beomgyu spun to look at him, but his eyes were blank. Taehyun gulped at their proximity. Any words he had in his head flew away. “I- um.” He sighed. Keep it simple, Taehyun. “I’m sorry for what I said that day. I was upset about my own memory and I took it out on you. I didn’t mean it at all. I’ve never heard you sing, but I’m sure that you’re great.” Taehyun could see Beomgyu melting by the second. He added on one last thought for good measure. “And I would love to hear your song, if you want to play it for me.” Beomgyu’s eyes filled with emotion, but it only lasted for a second. Taehyun tried his best to look at him pleadingly, but Beomgyu wouldn’t make eye contact. “Please,” he whispered, sounding more desperate than he would like to admit.

But Beomgyu just pushed him away. He didn’t use much force, but Taehyun still felt the blow as if he had been slapped in the face. “Thanks. But I don’t need your pity.” Taehyun opened his mouth to protest, but Beomgyu interrupted him. “It’s okay. I know you don’t like me. You don’t have to pretend. You can go your separate way, and I won’t bother you, yeah?” And then Beomgyu was turning away, disappearing into the crowd without so much as a look back. Taehyun felt broken. There was an ache in his chest that was driving him to go after Beomgyu, find him and hug him and tell him that no, Taehyun had always liked him. It took him a while to realize it, but Beomgyu’s attention meant more to him than the other knew. He had no idea how much he enjoyed being teased by him until Beomgyu had ignored him in the hallway, walked by as if he were nothing more than a painting on the wall. Or no, when Taehyun could see him laughing and talking with Daniel as if his conversation with Taehyun had never happened. It shouldn’t matter- it wouldn’t matter if it were anyone but Beomgyu. 

Taehyun reached up to grip at his hair, hoping the pain would shock him out of whatever trance he was in. It was just Beomgyu, he told himself. It didn’t matter whether or not he paid attention. They could refuse to interact for the next three years and it wouldn’t change anything. So why did the idea feel like it was carving a hole in Taehyun’s chest?

Taehyun noticed a familiar head of purple hair nearby and craned his head to look at him. Soobin looked like he was blushing at something that Yeonjun was saying (of course). Taehyun rolled his eyes, a fond smile on his face despite his sadness. Honestly. If he had someone who was that obviously whipped for him, he would have asked them out already. He wasn’t nearly as oblivious as Soobin… right?  
⋯  
Soobin couldn’t believe how oblivious Taehyun was. He had watched Taehyun blush and fidget as he talked to Beomgyu, and he saw the pain on his face as Beomgyu walked away from him. He had no idea what they had been talking about, but it hadn’t look good. It was like watching the beginning of a love story that he knew was going to be dragged out for months upon end. He shook his head in exasperation.

“They’re a couple of idiots, aren’t they?” Soobin said, shaking his head. He turned to look at Yeonjun, expecting the other to be watching their two friends as well. Instead, he found the blonde boy staring directly at him. He made a small noise of surprise and his eyes blew wide. “Wh-what are you looking at?” Soobin felt his skin prickle under the intensity of Yeonjun’s gaze. 

“Soobin.” His voice was low, firm with determination. “Do you want to dance with me?” Soobin was sure that he had misheard. 

“Dance- with you? Together?” He stuttered dumbly. Yeonjun nodded, his gaze never leaving the other’s.

“Yeah. They’re playing a slower song now.” Soobin looked over at the dance floor, where indeed the music had quieted down to something more mellow. There were quite a few couples out there, swaying with each other. Soobin looked back at Yeonjun, and the hopefulness in his eyes made it impossible to say no. 

“O-okay.” Yeonjun took Soobin’s hand, causing a small blush to rise on Soobin’s face. A few people gave them looks of surprise, and Soobin ducked his head in embarrassment. Once they made it to the floor, Yeonjun led them off to the side, where there weren't as many people. Soobin let out a grateful sigh of relief. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, with everyone watching them- even just the thought of that made him sweat. Once they were settled, Yeonjun interlaced their fingers, leading Soobin’s left hand to rest on Yeonjun’s waist while he put his right hand on Soobin’s shoulders. 

“Is this okay?” Yeonjun pulled back to look Soobin in the eye. Soobin nodded.

“Yeah. I don’t really know what I’m doing, though. Dancing and stuff.” Yeonjun smiled, his eyes soft.

“Don’t worry. I’ll lead you.” He started moving them from side to side, slowly at first. Soobin did his best to follow along. It seemed easy, but he couldn’t stop overthinking it. It was impossible not to be nervous when you’re dancing with an incredibly handsome boy in front of the whole school. Yeonjun seemed to notice and laughed, rubbing Soobin’s shoulders. “Relax. It’s okay.” Soobin took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders to release the tension, returning Yeonjun’s smile as best he could. 

They fell into a comfortable smile, just listening to the music and basking in the moment. But Soobin quickly realized that the song would end in a few minutes, and then he and Yeonjun would probably go their separate ways, not really talking for who knows how long. He still didn’t really know where he stood with Yeonjun- in terms of friendship or acquaintance or just another classmate. Before he could regret it, Soobin blurted out the first thing that came to mind. 

“Yeonjun, do you like me?” Soobin cringed. He wanted to run away, but he forced himself to keep his eyes open and look at the other. Yeonjun’s eyes were blown wide and he almost stumbled. 

“Um.” He cleared his throat, looking away. “What?” 

“I- I don’t know,” Soobin admitted. “But it’s just- we were really good friends for the first few weeks, and then we kind of drifted away. And then with the soul weight assignment, all of a sudden we were together again, and you seemed really friendly. But then- something happened, and you were back to being neutral. I just- I just want to know what I did wrong. Why don’t you talk to me anymore?” Soobin was a bit shocked at his own confidence, but something about Yeonjun made him easy to talk to. Soobin still got nervous around him, but it was good kind of nervous. The kind that fills you up like a balloon, ready to carry you into the sky if everything goes well. Not the churning, storm cloud of nerves that came with speaking in front of the whole class or doing something that he didn’t like. Yeonjun seemed to be experiencing one of those kinds of nerves, if the pinkness in his cheeks was any tell.

“It’s not-” He sighed, closing his eyes. By now they had basically stopped dancing, just standing with their hands interlocked. “It’s nothing that you did wrong. Seriously. You’re a really kind, funny, and warm person.”

“Then why did you run away? I enjoyed spending time with you.” Soobin’s thumb brushed gently over their hands, coaxing Yeonjun into an answer. 

“I don’t know. I guess I just felt like I was intruding.” Soobin’s brow furrowed. 

“Intruding?” He was ready to question Yeonjun to explain further, but all of a sudden the sky turned red. Everyone’s heads turned to look at the moon, which was now a dark reddish orange. The colors shot across the cloudless sky, where a few stars twinkled in their own light. Soobin felt like he was looking at a painting, or an alternate universe. The green grass, the blue dance floor, Soobin’s grey jacket, it all had a tinge of red, as if someone had just put a colored lens over the whole world. Everyone was oohing and aahing in awe, pointing up at the moon, the stars, and a new flying shape that was twirling across the sky. Soobin half joined in, almost laughing at the beautiful moment. Someone turned off some of the lights, and they were enveloped in darkness, heightening the effect. Soobin couldn’t see the people around him, but he still felt a connection. They were all united, looking at this stunning phenomenon in complete amazement. Soobin felt like he belonged, more than he ever had. 

But then the laughs turned into screams. 

The lights weren’t supposed to go off. Someone had shut them off. The shape in the sky wasn’t an act by the school. It was a creature ready to attack. The eclipse was no longer a moment of phenomena in nature, but a way to get an advantage over the unsuspecting students. 

People were crying out in fear as the dark shapes in the sky- there were multiple now- kept getting closer and closer. The outline of claws could be seen, and the faint whiteness of teeth got clearer and clearer. People cried out in agony as they were tripped and toppled to the ground, usually bringing someone down with them. By now, everyone was running around, pushing each other in an attempt to get out of the way- no one knew where to go, but they had to go somewhere. Soobin was among them. The darkness felt suffocating now, like the blackness could close in on him and wrap around his throat until he couldn’t breathe or see anything. He yelled the names of his friends in desperation, but his voice was lost among the others. He registered the voice of one of the teachers telling them to get down, and he dove to the ground. His head hit the side of a table leg and he crawled under it. He cowered beneath the furniture, his heart in his throat and his breathing heavy with fear. He kept shouting for his friends. Taehyun, Felix, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Hueningkai- anyone that he knew who would be able to come be with him. He didn’t care if he made it out alive or not, he just didn’t want to be alone. His voice broke as tears filled his eyes. No one was coming for him. He would have to be alone, scared, in the dark, with no idea if he was going to live or die. Soobin broke into sobs.

“Everyone, SHUT UP RIGHT NOW or you’re just more likely to get hurt.” A slinky, smooth voice rose above the others. It sounded like it was coming from the sky. The cries slowly died down until there was nothing but soft crying and the voices of teachers telling everyone what to do. “That includes you, dear teachers. If you get in my way I won’t hesitate to act.” Soobin peeked out from underneath the tablecloth, muffling his cries with his hand. He saw a pair of glowing red eyes hovering a few meters in the air, nearby- definitely too nearby. There was a flash of pale skin- the history teacher? And then another voice joined the crowd.

“Dante.” Soobin could practically feel the grin emitting from the red eyed creature- Dante, even through the darkness. The history teacher took off his glasses, and Soobin’s eyes widened in shock. That face- it was so familiar. Then all of a sudden he was flying too, his hands raised in a defensive position. Soobin squinted to look closer at those dark eyes. He looked like- no, it couldn’t be. 

“Well hello, Grim Reaper.” Soobin let out an audible gasp. That was the same person who first brought Soobin to Refund High- he had been their homeroom teacher all along? “I hope you enjoyed keeping me locked up for the past year, because that’s really going to come back to bite you.” 

“I don’t want to fight you, Dante.” Soobin could hear the frustration in the Grim Reaper’s voice. If Dante was locked up, then he must have done something to hurt the school before. So this whole time that Soobin had been there, they had been keeping this- this creature right beside them? And no one had said anything about it? 

“I don’t want to fight either.” The eclipse was slowly fading away, the moonlight coming back to illuminate Dante’s face. His skin was a pale white color, with purple horns on his head and wings beating behind him. And those eyes, still glowing a blood red, dancing with excitement. “I came here to play.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i need to go to bed i wrote "suit" as "soot" MULTIPLE TIMES english is my first language i swear 
> 
> not @ beomgyu wearing yoongi's suit from bst... not the iconic pink one but maybe next time- also sorry I don't know anything about male fashion so all of that may have been wack
> 
> sorry to leave you all on a cliffhanger but i hope that this was enjoyable!
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	7. *NOT AN UPDATE*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what? is someone freaking out over some words again? couldn't be me

hey everyone! sorry if i made you think that this was just a really fast update, it's not :( 

i ran into a bit of a crisis recently over whether or not it makes me a bad person to be writing RPF (real person fanfiction), so obviously it's been hard for me to start writing the next update. personally i don't think RPF is hurtful unless you purposely try and push it in that person's face or write about overly personal details in their lives. obviously if you don't like it that's completely fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. anyway, with an au like this one, i really just think of the people as names and faces with a general personality- something that i can mold with the details of my own story. the writing for me is pretty disconnected from the actual person, so i usually don't think of this as being wrong- until i saw people constantly saying that it was. no matter how many times i tell myself that it's not as bad as it looks, other people's words will always have more of an effect on me than my own ever will. 

this is the second time that this fic has put me into some emotional stress,,, but i'm stubborn and i won't abandon it. i've been fantasizing about finishing it for too long. so right now don't worry! i tend to get mood swings like this a lot, but i get over them fast. i just need to remind myself that it's not so much about writing about a certain person as much as it about putting something that i wrote and created myself out on the internet and seeing how people take it. and it's gone well so far! i started writing on ao3 on a total whim and so i guess that i'm still trying to accept it. 

anyway, thank you so much for reading so far! i wish that i could've had this discovery just like one week later so that i could leave you all on a more satisfying note, but hopefully i won't be taking a break for too long. as soon as i have the strength to open that google doc again i will :)

hope you're all doing well! happy (late) thanksgiving if you celebrate it!!

sincerely,  
mei <3


	8. seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YALL IM BACK THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER YET SO ENJOY

Beomgyu ran across the grass, his eyes set on the forest at the edge of the clearing. Luckily, he had already been at the edge of the crowd when the eclipse began. Still, he could feel his heart pounding with sheer adrenaline, his breathing picking up even though he wasn’t tired. He glanced behind him and saw a stream of students following him. 

He reached a cluster of trees and swung himself behind one of them, his back pressed against the trunk. He took a moment to catch his breath, trying to slow his heartbeat. He heard the rustle of the grass as the other students settled around him. They all exchanged worried glances, afraid to make any sound. Beomgyu finally got the courage to peer behind the tree, looking for whatever creature had been chasing them.

It was a wolf like beast, with piercing red eyes and sharp canines that showed when it growled. The only difference between it and a giant dog were the shiny black wings on its back that propelled it through the air. Beomgyu felt frozen as he watched it get closer and closer, shutting his eyes as he saw its ragged claws reaching out towards him, anticipating the searing pain, and then-

Nothing. 

Beomgyu slowly opened his eyes to see the creature lying on the ground, its body twisted and broken. Its eyes looked glazed over and its tongue lolled out of its mouth. Beomgyu felt a wave of relief, with a hint of nervousness at what other being could have destroyed the dog. 

“Are you okay?’ Beomgyu jumped at the hushed voice. A handsome man was in front of him, with dark skin and what looked like flowing black feathers on his back. His black wings beat behind him as he hovered in the air. Beomgyu nodded slowly. 

“Wh-who-” His voice was cracked with fear. 

“Ah. You might recognize me better as-” The man turned in a circle, his feathers flying and shrinking, and before Beomgyu knew it he was staring at a large black crow. The same crow that led Beomgyu and the others into Refund High on the first day. Beomgyu’s mouth dropped in shock. First their history teacher was the Grim Reaper, and now this? 

“Who’s he?” Beomgyu gestured weakly at Dante in the distance. The crow turned back into his human form, his expression grim.

“He used to be a student here, but there were- complications.” A loud crash sounded from the center of the clearing. “Stay here, okay? If the fire dogs come any closer you run. All of you.” 

“Dicarius!” The winged man- Dicarius- looked over his shoulder as the Grim Reaper called his name. There was another fire dog lunging at the Grim Reaper, who was currently focused on Dante. Dicarius swooped over to go help, and Beomgyu was left staring into the cold night air. 

The fire from Dante’s powers provided enough lighting for Beomgyu to see flashes of the fight. The Grim Reaper was able to summon up streams of purplish black magic with a swing of his scythe, almost looking like he was painting a picture in the night sky. Beomgyu didn’t understand half of what was going on, with the different spells that the Grim Reaper was probably casting, but he could recognize when he managed to get a hit against Dante. He fought with a certain elegance and maturity, his face staying focused and neutral no matter how much Dante provoked him.

Dante, on the other hand, fought like a cat trying to catch a mouse. The grin never left his face as he teasingly spun a ball of fire between his hands or rock that just grazed the Grim Reaper’s ear. Whenever the latter got too close to him he sent a blast of air to push him back, never enough to bring him to the ground but enough to annoy him, keep the fight going on for as long as possible.

A realization dawned on Beomgyu. Dante fought with the four elements- water, fire, air, and earth. He was a dragon. Beomgyu’s eyes widened. No wonder the faculty had been so worried about him. If what Azula had said was true, then Dante was part of the most powerful beings in Nirvana. Beomgyu’s eyes shot back to the fight. Suddenly he didn’t feel so confident that they were going to win. 

“This is fun, isn’t it?” Dante turned his stare to a group of students cowering on the ground and directed a lazy flame towards them, laughing when they scrambled away. The Grim Reaper dove to stop the flame. 

“Who let you out, Dante?” The intense fighting ceased for a moment, the blows becoming smaller and more spread out. 

“Why don’t you ask your so-called colleague over there?” Dante smirked and gestured to Dicarius, who immediately froze mid air. The Grim Reaper whirled around to face him.

“Dicarius? You did this?” 

“No! I didn’t let him out. But I admit I may have been a little… lenient at times.” The Grim Reaper’s face lit up with rage, more emotion than he had shown during the whole fight.

“How could you- you knew how dangerous he was, and you-” 

“Behind you!” Dicarius shouted, already moving to try and stop the spear shaped rock that Dante was sending towards the back of the Grim Reaper’s head. But he was knocked aside by yet another fire dog, growling as it tackled him to the ground. The Grim Reaper had the instinct to dodge to the side, but the rock still managed to catch his shoulder. He spiraled to the ground, fighting to keep himself up. Dante simply grinned and summoned the spear back to his hands, posed to strike once again. But the minute it left his hand it was stopped midair. 

“Dante. Enough.” A new voice, this one from behind the male dragon, boomed across the clearing. Beomgyu shifted his gaze to see a girl dressed in a flowing gold dress, her eyes glowing a deep shade of violet. Azula. Beomgyu felt a wave of relief wash over him. Two dragons, seemingly around the same age- they would be evenly matched. 

“I really hope my eyes aren’t deceiving me. It’s always been a dream of mine to fight one of you stuck up royals.” Dante looked at Azula with a hunger in his eyes that made Beomgyu’s skin crawl. “You sure that you want to take me on, princess?” Princess? Beomgyu remembered the first day at Refund High, when Azula had explained the dragon royal family to all of them. The look on her face- when the history teacher had asked her about the royal family- it was because she was one of them. 

“Azula. Please. Let us handle this.” The Grim Reaper had made his way to his feet, rolling his shoulder with a wince of pain. But Azula didn’t stand down.

“You’re a teacher here. You matter much more to this world than I do. No one cares if I disappear, royal or not.” 

“I’m not going to let a child fight for me.” The Grim Reaper made a move to stop Azula, but she beat him to it. With a wave of her hands the ground opened up beneath him and his feet were entrapped in a hole, the earth packed tightly around his ankles. “Azula!”

She ignored him. “Dante. This was always supposed to be our fight. Between the two of us and the two of us only, got it? None of them-” she gestured towards the students in the clearing. “-need to be involved.” Dante’s face spread into a grin.

“Sure thing, princess. But you know me. It’s hard not to play dirty.” A rope of water slinked around Azula’s ankle, but she shook it off.

“Why do you keep calling me princess? It’s not like your family was short on money either.” Azula twirled her hands, the ground around her following until she stood on a pedestal of earth, level with Dante. 

“It doesn’t matter how much money we had. We were still scum to you.” There was a flicker in Dante’s red eyes.

“I never thought of you as scum. Why are you taking this out on me? On us?” Azula was the picture perfect image of calm, gathering a stream of water around the base of the rock she was standing on. Dante, on the other hand, was cracking.

“From the minute I was born, I was labelled as evil. And because of what? Something my ancestors did?” Beomgyu saw the struggle in Dante’s face, his smile making him look more like he was crazy rather than cool and confident. 

“A label means nothing. What’s so hard about that?” Azula held a ball of fire in her hands, passing it back and forth from one palm to another. Beomgyu stared at her in disbelief. She probably could’ve taken Dante down by now. What was she stalling for? Beomgyu felt a small pit of dread in his stomach. It was all a game, Azula was never on their side, she was about to turn on all of the students and destroy them with Dante-

“What’s so hard?! I got harassed in the streets so much that I had to start wearing a disguise when I went out to get food. I switched schools every year because of the bullying. The reason I died in the first place was because I tried to fight back for once!” A plume of fire exploded from Dante’s mouth and headed straight for Azula’s face. Barely batting an eye, she dissolved it with a breath of air. She tilted her head slightly and looked down at the ground, her eyes searching. Beomgyu followed her gaze and saw with a start that the students that had previously been cowering in the clearing had disappeared. A realization slowly dawned on him.

She hadn’t been stalling because she didn’t want to fight him. She had been buying the students time to get away. Beomgyu immediately regretted whatever doubts that he had previously had about her. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so judgemental over nothing. The real enemy here was-

“Dante. That’s all in your past. Can’t you just get over it?” Beomgyu smiled at Azula’s words. He understood now. She was deliberately provoking him, trying to get him riled up so that he would lose control. If he fought out of pure anger, he wouldn’t have as much skill. And her provoking was certainly working. 

“It’s not my past! I was rejected here just like I was rejected in the real world. You all made me the villain before I even had a chance to speak. So why don’t I just become the monster that you think I am?” Dante slashed his arm, sending a blazing wave of fire towards Azula. But his aim was off. She dodged it easily and sent another back towards him. The fight had begun.

The last fight had been more precise, more planned and deliberate. This one was made up of sheer power. Neither opponent held back, going at each other with full force. There was no time to breathe between blows. A rock would be flying at Azula’s head as she wrapped Dante’s waist with water. Azula had shifted so that she had wings as well, and the added element of flying made the fight even more complicated. Dante blew a stream of wind towards Azula and she spun in the air, fighting to regain her balance. Beomgyu sucked in a breath.

Dante flew even higher, raising an assortment of rocks on either side of him. Azula braced herself, her body tensed, and grimaced for what she knew was about to come. Dante began to rain rocks down on her, one by one. Azula dodged and diverted them, all of them falling heavily to the ground. Beomgyu flinched as one landed somewhat close to him. Fear churned in his belly and he looked around frantically to make sure that no one was getting hit. 

A larger rock flew towards a clump of trees and a group of students ran out from the forest to avoid it. Beomgyu’s heart stopped when he recognized a familiar clump of red hair. He held his breath as he watched Taehyun running from one side of the clearing to another. The rocks were still raining down, shaking the ground as they landed. Beomgyu's heart stopped as he watched Taehyun stumble and fall. Panic immediately took over.

“Please, get up, please, don’t stop moving, Taehyun please,” Beomgyu whispered to himself, his voice trembling as he resisted the urge to go out and help him. The other students had made it to safety by now, but Taehyun was hesitating. Every time he tried to get up his knee seemed to give out, sending him tumbling back towards the ground. “No. Get up. You have to be okay. You can’t get hurt, you- TAEHYUN!” A rock was coming towards him from behind, Taehyun oblivious to the fact that he was in danger. He looked up at the sound of his name and tried to move on instinct, but he was going to be too slow.

Beomgyu was sprinting before he even realized, his eyes set on Taehyun and Taehyun only. He heard people yelling at him to stop but he ignored them. He moved towards Taehyun with speed that he didn’t even know that he had, his heart beating a mantra of Taehyun, Taehyun, Taehyun. The red haired boy looked up to see him, eyes widening, before Beomgyu shoved him out of the way. They both tumbled to the ground, the momentum sending Taehyun rolling so that he was a few inches away from Beomgyu. The rock crashed down onto Beomgyu’s ankle, sending searing pain up through his leg. Immediately Taehyun was there, cradling him, tears already streaming down his face. 

“Beomgyu, why did you- your ankle- does it hurt? Of course it hurts, you got crushed with a rock- what do I do? There’s no one- I don’t know how to fix this- you could’ve died, you idiot!” Taehyun was speaking at the speed of light, his eyes wide and frantic. Beomgyu would have smiled at how endearing his worry was if it weren’t for the pain.

“It was going to hit you,” Beomgyu explained. Taehyun went silent, just staring at Beomgyu with those big eyes. 

“But you- running out here and everything- for a moment, I thought-” Taehyun swallowed harshly. “I thought you were going to die.” Taehyun’s voice broke and he hung his head, hiding his face in Beomgyu’s shoulder. “Please don’t die,” he whispered, his words tugging on Beomgyu’s heart. 

“And so how do you think I felt when I saw that rock coming towards you?” Beomgyu reached out a hand and caressed his head, his fingers carding through his hair. Taehyun lifted his head, his eyes full of shock.

“You- but you hate me,” He blurted, covering his mouth after. Beomgyu laughed weakly. He had never meant to make Taehyun think that way. He had just wanted the other to like Beomgyu out of- actual happiness, not guilt and pity. But none of that really mattered now. 

“Taehyun. Taehyunnie.” He reveled in the way Taehyun blushed at the nickname. “You should know by now that I could never hate you.” Beomgyu watched as Taehyun’s eyes filled with tears. He reached a hand up to his face, pausing to ask for permission. Taehyun gave a small nod. Beomgyu pressed his hand against Taehyun’s cheek, wiping away the tears that were there. 

“And I’m not going to die. Not again. In fact,” Beomgyu sat up, keeping his ankle as still as he could, wincing at the pain. Taehyun held onto him, his hands fluttering nervously as he tried to keep Beomgyu as comfortable as possible. “I can probably make it to those trees if you help me.” Taehyun nodded, slinging at arm underneath Beomgyu’s shoulders and hoisting him up. Beomgyu hopped on one foot. He stopped suddenly and looked at Taehyun.

“Wait- your knee-” Taehyun rolled his eyes.

“You have a broken ankle. Shut up about my knee.” Beomgyu felt a warmth in his chest that spread into a grin. Taehyun was back to normal. To be honest, it did hurt to see him cry. He was glad to have the teasing back again. 

“Alright. I’ll let you carry me then, since you’re so big and strong, hm?” Taehyun scoffed, but Beomgyu saw the smile on his face. 

“I’m strong enough to throw you too.” 

“Hey!”  
⋯  
Yeonjun heard shouting from a distance and looked up, but the commotion was too far away for him to see. He thought that he saw a flash of red hair but dismissed the idea out of panic. Taehyun had to be fine. Maybe it was just his eyes deceiving him. 

He heard a soft whimper and looked over to see a girl shakily walking down the path towards him. She was limping, Yeonjun could see her favoring one foot over the other. She met his gaze, her eyes wide and pleading. Yeonjun had never seen her before, but he rushed over to help her walk. 

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from crying. Yeonjun got her settled in his previous hiding spot and continued to search around the area. He flinched at the sounds of more rocks hitting the ground, but he didn’t stop. There had to be more people who were too scared to move, and he couldn’t rest knowing that they were in danger. 

The ground rumbled, shaking, and Yeonjun dropped into a crouch to avoid falling over. There was a crash from nearby and Yeonjun’s head whipped to see who it was. A boy was huddled underneath a table that seemed to be collapsing on him, his hands desperately trying to hold it up. Yeonjun recognized him immediately.

“Soobin!” He ran over and pulled the table off of him. Soobin cried out in surprise and flinched away from him. “It’s okay, it’s me.” Yeonjun wrapped his arms around Soobin’s waist and pulled him up- it didn’t seem like Soobin’s muscles were working right now. “We have to get out of here. Are you hurt?” Soobin shook his head frantically, his thin body shaking in Yeonjun’s arms. 

Yeonjun dragged Soobin out of the clearing and into the trees, gently sitting him down on the ground. Soobin covered his face with his trembling hands and drew in a broken breath. Yeonjun crouched next to him and rubbed his back as comfortingly as possible as he kept an eye out for any danger. 

“The dragon- and the fire- right in front of me-” Soobin’s words came out muffled, his voice becoming more distressed as he recalled the memory. Yeonjun pulled Soobin closer. 

“Shhh. It’s over now. I’ve got you, yeah? Nothing will come near you again, I’ll make sure of it.” Yeonjun let Soobin cry his fear out for a few minutes. Eventually Soobin slowly lowered his hands, his deep brown eyes staring right into Yeonjun’s. His lips were parted around his ragged breaths. His face was so close, and despite their situation Yeonjun still felt his stomach swoop. Tear tracks marked Soobin’s plush cheeks, and Yeonjun felt the faint urge to kiss them until they were gone. The idea made his ears burn, and he pulled Soobin against him so he wouldn’t see his blush. 

Soobin relaxed into the other boy, his breathing evening out. They huddled like that for a while, Yeonjun trying to muffle any sounds of the fighting from Soobin’s ears. Eventually the latter spoke again. “What were you saying before the eclipse?” 

Yeonjun coughed. “You remember that?” 

Soobin felt his lips curve into a small smile. “It wasn’t very long ago.” 

“Well, but the whole- dragon thing- is a little unnerving.” Yeonjun breathed the words as carefully as possible, not wanting to bring back Soobin’s traumatic experience. Soobin hummed from where his face was pressed near Yeonjun’s neck, sending shivers down his spine.

“Exactly. I don’t want to think about it. So, distract me.” Yeonjun groaned. He really couldn’t find a way out of this. Soobin pulled back and stared Yeonjun in the eye. “Yeonjun. Why did you feel like you were intruding?” When Yeonjun looked at Soobin’s soft, pleading, expression, he knew that he was about to crack.

“Fine. I wanted to get closer to you, but there were certain things-” Yeonjun thought back to that certain day, when Soobin had moved away from him just to cuddle Hueningkai. And the blush on Kai’s face afterwards, and the way that he looked at Soobin and glared at Yeonjun- there was no mistaking it. Yeonjun may like Soobin, but he had been too late. And now there was someone already there for Soobin to call his. Someone probably more suited for Soobin than Yeonjun would ever be. “I don’t think that would’ve gone over well.”

Soobin tilted his head. “Why?” The confused look on his face was making Yeonjun practically melt. He was once again reminded that Soobin was, and would forever be, too good and too perfect for Yeonjun to ruin. 

Yeonjun cleared his throat and looked away. “Someone likes you. And I know who. So, you know, it would just be awkward.” Yeonjun didn’t know if he was talking about Hueningkai or himself, but it didn’t really matter. Soobin’s eyes widened.

“Someone likes me?” Yeonjun nodded in confirmation. Soobin shook his head. “You must have it wrong. No one would ever see me like that.” Soobin sat back against the tree, and Yeonjun immediately missed the warmth of him in his arms. “But either way, that shouldn’t prevent a friendship.” Soobin pouted at him. Yeonjun sighed, his eyes scrunching. He was a weak, weak, man. 

“Fine. If we make it out of here-” He grimaced at his word choice- “We’ll be friends. Okay?” Soobin’s face lit up, and Yeonjun let out a breath of relief. 

“Look out!” Someone screamed at them from behind another tree, and Yeonjun shot up, pulling Soobin with him. He pushed the taller boy behind him and started backing away, looking around for the danger. There was a whooshing sound as one of the flames from the fight landed on their tree, setting it on fire. Yeonjun grabbed Soobin and rushed away- although not too far back into the trees. The last thing they needed was to get lost in this forest. 

The fire was starting to spread, and Yeonjun cursed under his breath. If the forest started burning then they were all toast. Quite literally. Students were shouting, mostly at Azula, pleading for her to put out the fire before it got too bad. Yeonjun peered out from between the trees to look back at the fight.

Currently Azula was holding up shields of rock against Dante’s fire attack. She startled at the sound of the students shouting at her, momentarily disoriented. Dante took the chance to plant one final strike on her, the fire twisting and aimed right at her heart.

A shield of black magic knocked it away. The Grim Reaper had saved her, although he was then immediately pushed over by a fire dog. Still, Dante hadn’t been expecting it. Azula took his surprise as a chance to raise a raging wave and send it crashing over their section of the forest. Yeonjun shielded Soobin against the water, feeling some drops land against his back. Once they recovered, Yeonjun’s eyes went back to being glued to the fight. 

Azula was on the ground now, unable to focus on the water and flying at the same time. Unfortunately for her, Dante was much more dangerous when he was the only one in the air. He took the water Azula had disrupted and spun it into an icicle sending it towards Azula's back. She moved to the right, but it was too slow. The ice pierced her side and she fell. Dante flew closer. Azula struggled to get up, but he sent a strong wind to knock her back down. 

Even from far away, Yeonjun could hear Dante’s slimy voice. “Well, I think that I’ve found my new method of attack.” He gathered up another icicle, aiming it at Azula’s heart. Yeonjun sucked in a breath, wanting to close his eyes but unable to look away. Next to him, Soobin maneuvered until he was under Yeonjun’s arm, the latter automatically squeezing his shoulders. 

Azula gritted her teeth and spun in a circle, her arms outstretched. A burst of wind extended from her arms, sending Dante flying back, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. Yeonjun and Soobin both relaxed. But as Yeonjun watched Azula clutch her side, doing her best to stop the blood flowing out from the wound, he felt extremely uneasy. Both opponents were pretty scratched up and tired, but this was the first major injury. And Azula had barely escaped death. 

The confidence that Azula was going to win disappeared.   
⋯  
Meanwhile, Hueningkai had spent the last few hours sulking in his dorm. With no one else to talk to and nowhere to go, there wasn’t much to keep him entertained. Even the schoolwork had been purposely lighter tonight since the teachers knew that most students wouldn’t have much time to get it done. He ended up just scrolling on his phone, taking occasional pauses to stare off at the wall when his eyes got tired. The room felt stuffy and it was too hot. He had no idea how he was going to survive until the others got home. 

He was somewhat regretting his decision to stay home. It wouldn’t be too bad if he saw Soobin dancing with Yeonjun, right? Seeing them holding hands and leaning towards each other as they swayed to the music, a light blush on Soobin’s cheek as Yeonjun whispered something in his ear?

He took it back. It would absolutely be that bad.

Hueningkai groaned and flopped back onto the bed, rubbing at his eyes with a hand. He hated feeling like this. Really, what was he to Soobin? A friend? A brother? A second choice? He sighed. Why did he have to be so useless?

Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream from outside the window. Hueningkai jolted up, hitting his head on the bunk above him. Fear coursed through his veins as he hesitantly made his way over to the window. The lighting had changed too, the white moonlight having changed to a musky red color with the eclipse. It felt like something out of a horror movie, and Hueningkai was not ready to be murdered. 

A cluster of trees was partially blocking Hueningkai’s view, but he did catch sight of a moving shape in the sky. Multiple moving shapes, actually. Most of them looked like animals, but one of them almost resembled… a human? He had long, graceful wings, but the rest of him looked like a standard human. Hueningkai squinted to see if it was anyone he knew. The wings were too sleek to be that of an eagle, and there were no visible horns on his head. What was he? 

No matter what he was, he seemed dangerous. Even from a distance, Hueningkai could see the glow of his red eyes and the glint of his sharp teeth. There was still a chorus of chaotic yelling that Hueningkai assumed was coming from the students. Whoever this guy was, he was probably threatening the students. 

Hueningkai began to panic. He was the only person he knew of that was not at the ball. And if they all ended up trapped there- it would be up to him to somehow save them. His breathing quickened as his mind raced to think of something to do. He had absolutely no common sense when it came to life threatening situations like this. If he ended up in front of a speeding train, he’d probably be too scared to move. He was no hero. Why did it have to be him of all people?

Okay, okay, he tried to calm himself, take it step by step. What’s the first logical thing to do? See if there’s anyone else around. Hueningkai raced out of his room and ran down the hallway, glancing into each room.

“Hello? Anyone there?” He called out down each corridor, even venturing into the usually restricted section of the school that was only for teachers. Nothing. Everyone had either attended the ball or had already left at the sign of trouble. Hueningkai felt the panic bubble up inside of him again.

“Okay. So we’re all alone. That’s fine. That’s completely fine. Next step is… go outside?’ This step was significantly harder than the first. Hueningkai had a daunting feeling that if he stepped foot outside he’d be shot down by the guy with the red eyes. But if the guy was as dangerous as he was making him then that meant that all of his friends, Taehyun, Soobin, they were all in extreme danger. He had to do it for them. 

Hueningkai decided to at least enter the ball from the forest rather than just going down the main path. He needed to be somewhat secretive until he had a plan. As soon as he closed the school door behind him he was greeted with deafening crashes and a shaking ground. He flinched, his instincts screaming at him to go back inside. But he continued on, taking step after step into the unknown forest and towards the danger. 

There was a flash of white in front of him and he scrunched his eyes shut, letting out a yelp as he put his arms up in front of him protectively. He braced himself for impact, but nothing happened. Slowly, he lowered his arms and opened his eyes. A small white creature- the same one that he had seen all those weeks ago, stood in front of him, its eyes wide. Even though this creature wasn’t human, Hueningkai could still see the fear in its expression. 

He crouched down so he was at its level. “Do you know what’s going on?” He wasn’t expecting an answer of course, but it felt good to have some sort of companionship in this stressful endeavor, even if it was with… an animal. 

To his surprise, the spirit seemed to understand. It ran away a few steps and then looked behind, nodding its head for Hueningkai to follow. He stood up, startled, but began to follow tentatively. It’s not like he had a better plan. And this creature seemed really sure of what it was doing. 

The spirit led him through the trees, bounding over logs and diving under bushes as Hueningkai struggled to keep up. The sounds of the chaos from the ball got fainter and fainter. He felt his stomach churn with nerves as he realized that he had no idea where he was or how to get back to the school. It lookedl ike there was no turning back. Eventually the trees opened up into a clearing, smaller than the one than where the ball was but still pretty significant. 

It almost looked like… an oasis. There was a small pool of water in the middle that seemed to sparkle, even in the night. The grass looked almost fluffy, like more of a comfortable bed than a hard ground. Even the air seemed fresher. But the most striking thing was the plethora of spirits gathered on the ground and in the air. 

There were all different shapes and sizes. Some looked like a snowball with wings, floating in the air like fairies. One of them resembled a snake, twisting around the trees. Some were bigger, like a large dog but with a set of wings on its back. A few were almost the size of Kai himself. They were all varying shades of white and grey, with an aura around them that reminded Hueningkai of sunlight. The original spirit that Hueningkai had followed settled in the middle of them, turning to look back at him.

“Um. Hello?” They all seemed to respond to his words. One of them, a wolf with a set of curling horns, slowly approached him. Hueningkai felt the urge to back away, but the look in the wolf’s eyes seemed to draw him in. Once the spirit was in front of him it bent its head towards him, lowering itself slightly to the ground. Nobody moved for a moment. The spirit glanced up back at Kai, its eyes inviting. 

Tentatively, Kai reached out a hand and placed it gently on the wolf’s head. Immediately a burst of energy shot from his hand and up his arm, pooling somewhere around his head. The wolf’s fur felt soft, a similar texture to a normal animal but with something- different. 

‘Can you hear me?’ Hueningkai jolted at the new voice. Well, it wasn’t so much a voice as it was a feeling. The words seemed to echo inside of his head, he felt them coursing through his body. And yet he could understand them just as easily if someone had whispered them in his ear. 

“Y-yes? How is that possible?” 

“It doesn’t matter right now. We need you to lead the students here.” Hueningkai’s eyes widened.

“Here? As in, this clearing?” The wolf dipped its head in a nod.

“Yes. This clearing is reserved for only light spirits like us, so Dante and his henchmen won’t be able to get in. But we can expand the boundaries for mortals like you.” 

Hueningkai’s brow furrowed. “Dante? Is that the scary person at the ball? Who is he?” 

The wolf’s eyes lowered. “I’d rather that someone else explain that to you. All you need to know is that he’s dangerous and he’s causing a frenzy that involves your fellow students.”

Hueningkai gulped. “Okay. How will I know how to find the clearing?” The wolf nodded towards one of the flying spirits. 

“You’ll have a guide. Now hurry. I don’t know how much longer Azula can keep this up.” Azula? More questions were at the tip of his tongue, but Hueningkai assumed that it wasn’t the best time to be asking them. So he just nodded quickly and dashed away, following the trail of the flying spirit. 

Only when they reached the clearing did Hueningkai realize that he still didn’t really have a plan. How was he supposed to get the message out to the hundreds of students scattered across the clearing? This would take a while- so he had to act fast. Glancing up at the sky, he grimaced at what he saw. There was Azula, fighting tooth and nail with who he now recognized as Dante. They were barely using their powers now, practically just having a hand to hand fight in the air. 

Hueningkai darted his way in between trees, pausing behind each one to make sure that no one saw him. Once he reached the first student he tapped them on the shoulder, shushing the startled yell that came out of their mouth.

“Shh, it’s okay, I’m here to help. See that floating white thing over there?” The student nodded. “Go to it, and wait for me to come back. If I don’t come-” Hueningkai icily realized that was a very real possibility- “Then just follow where it takes you. Okay? Make sure to bring along anyone else you see on your way.” Hopefully that would help speed up this process. The student nodded again and dashed off.

Hueningkai continued like this for a while, gathering up a large group of students at the edge of the forest. The fight was raging on, but he didn’t look at it unless he had to. Based on the amount of times he heard Dante laugh, it didn’t look like it was going too well. 

“Hold on for a minute. I’ll take these kids and then come back for more.” Hueningkai startled before realizing that it was just the spirit talking to him. He didn’t really know how to communicate back, so he just paused in his tracks and hoped that the spirit saw him.

As he felt the night air set in on his skin, he began to shiver, not wearing anything other than his uniform. He glanced around the trees for other students. Huddling with other people might help ward off the cold, he figured. And he could get a head start on sending them to the spirit oasis. He squinted into the darkness and caught sight of a couple heads of bright hair.

“Soobin? Yeonjun?” Soobin heard his name being called and turned around, his face lighting up when he saw Kai. Hueningkai creeped over to their hiding spot and crouched down next to them. 

“Kai!” Soobin tackled him in a hug as soon as he was close enough. Hueningkai laughed shakily and embraced the other back. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you. Wait a minute-” Soobin pulled back and stared at him. “Why are you here? It’s dangerous! You should’ve stayed back-”

“Are you kidding? And leave you all here? I had to do something.” Yeonjun coughed from behind Soobin.

“Don’t take this the wrong way- you seem like a very capable person, but what are you going to do against- that?” Yeonjun gestured vaguely at the mess behind them. Hueningkai smiled sheepishly.

“Well. About that.” He told them about the oasis he had been led to, and what the spirits had told him about how no student could be hurt there. He pointed out the flying spirit, who was now back. He didn’t really know how to explain the whole talking thing, so he left that out. “I just need to get everyone to go to that clearing, and then we’d all be safe.” 

Yeonjun nodded, looking thoughtful. “Well, we can help spread the word to make sure everyone knows in time.”

Hueningkai smiled in relief. “Really?” The other two nodded. “Thanks. I was kinda worried about that.” 

Soobin’s face fell. “Wait. I remember seeing Taehyun, and it looked like he fell- and then Beomgyu, he-” Soobin cut himself off, eyes widening in worry. Yeonjun put a hand on his back, circling his palm. Hueningkai pretended not to see. Soobin took a deep breath and continued. “They looked injured.” Hueningkai’s heart sank. 

“Shit,” he said, not having half the mind to apologize for cursing. Okay. He could figure this out. One thing at a time, he remembered. “If you guys can get more people to spread the message, then that should be taken care of. I’ll look after Taehyun and Beomgyu. I can try and find somewhere else in the forest where we can hide if we can’t make it to the oasis.” 

Soobin shook his head. “Huening- no. Camping out in the forest all alone? That’s just asking for trouble.” But Hueningkai was defiant.

“It’s the safest way! Would you rather we leave them to die?” Soobin’s face crumpled, and Hueningkai immediately regretted his words. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just-” He stood up, dusting the dirt off of his pants. “Let me do this, okay?” He felt a strange sense of responsibility, even though he was no different from the others. Soobin still looked at him with an expression of concern, but reluctantly nodded. 

“Stay safe,” He murmured, and Kai gave him a reassuring smile. 

“Go to the oasis, okay?” And then he was off, weaving between trees once again. Thunder boomed above him, and he glanced up at the sky. A storm was forming. He swore and ran faster, pausing only to tell students where to go. His eyes searched for that red hair, the one pop of color amongst all of this darkness. 

“Kai! Here!” He let out a sigh of relief at the familiar voice. 

“Taehyun!” He saw the two of them behind a tree, Taehyun standing over Beomgyu. As he got closer he lowered his pace and started paying more attention to where he was stepping. They were on the edge of the clearing now- the danger of being caught and attacked was higher now. Only when he was standing next to them did Kai see the way that Beomgyu was clutching his ankle, holding it carefully still. “What happened?”

“Got crushed by a rock.” Beomgyu said it jokingly, but Hueningkai could see the fear in his eyes. “I can’t really walk.” Taehyun nodded and turned his gaze to Kai.

“So, why are you here?”

“I came to help you.” Taehyun smiled, and Beomgyu relaxed a little. Hueningkai tried to return their sentiment, but inside he was somewhat panicking. They wouldn’t make it to the oasis with Beomgyu in this condition. If they even tried to move him anywhere, Hueningkai was pretty sure that they would make too much noise and would attract an attacker. But staying here was certainly too risky. He blinked back at Taehyun, mouth opening and closing as he tried to weigh his options. Luckily, his decision soon became irrelevant. 

There was a loud growl as a fire dog came rushing towards them, somehow detecting the three of them behind the tree. Hueningkai’s first instinct was to move away, but then he looked down and saw Beomgyu half scrambling away in fear. He wasn’t going to be able to move far away enough. The dog’s claws came closing down on them, aiming for Beomgyu’s throat. Hueningkai did the first thing he thought of. He dove in front of Beomgyu and braced himself for impact. 

There was a loud roar and Hueningkai felt a hot wind blow across his face before it was replaced with something cooler. His eyes were closed, but he could sense the heat of the fire dog be replaced by a whirling dark shape. There was a vulgar slicing sound before everything was quiet again. Slowly, Hueningkai opened his eyes. 

In front of him was the decapitated body of a fire dog. In front of that stood the Grim Reaper. Who looked suspiciously like their history teacher? But that wasn’t relevant right now. Hueningkai tried to stutter out a thank you, but the words died on his tongue when he saw the way the man was looking at him.

“You.” Hueningkai gulped and pointed at his chest with a questioning look. “Yes. Were you able to talk to those spirits?” Hueningkai’s eyes widened, but he nodded. The Grim Reaper’s look became something of suspicion and wonder. “Hm. I’ll be speaking with you later.” And with that he flew away, picking another fire dog as his target. 

“Kai- seriously- that was amazing- I can’t thank you enough.” Beomgyu looked at him with tears shining in his eyes. Hueningkai grinned despite himself. 

“Wouldn’t take it back for anything.” Their perfect moment was ruined by another clap of thunder above their heads, rain beginning to pour down. Soon they were all soaked, the ground muddy beneath their feet. 

“Give up already!” A loud shout could be heard from the fight. Dante flew over Azula, who was huddled on the ground. Still, she looked up at him and grinned weakly.

“I’ll fight you until there’s nothing but my head left. And even then I’d still be able to trash talk you better than you can.” Dante growled and whipped his hands around, the air around Azula swirling. Her eyes went wide and she clutched at her throat.

“Can’t talk if you can’t breathe. How does that feel now, princess?” Azula sank lower to the ground, her chest heaving. Dante cackled, swooping closer. His hair and clothes were matted down by the rain, and his eyes had lost all of their sanity. He looked like a monster, his eyes overflowing with desperate pleasure as he slowly choked Azula to death. Azula was slumped over now, still gasping for air, her eyes glazed. Dante flew closer and closer and the whole world prepared themselves for the end.

And then many things happened at once.

First, Azula sat up with a burst of energy and pushed Dante away, weakening his hold over her. Second, there was a flash of light in the sky. Third, Azula raised her hand to the clouds and summoned that light to herself. Fourth, Azula sent that flash of light- which Hueningkai now identified as lightning- straight at Dante, whose eyes went impossibly wide with rage and sudden fear. Finally, thunder boomed across the clearing as Dante fell to the ground, unconscious before he hit the grass. Azula took a few recovery breaths before collapsing herself. 

And then all was silent.

The fire dogs roared in defeat when they saw their unconscious leader, flying away into the night sky. The Grim Reaper dove to Azula’s side while Dicarius made his way to the forest, collecting any students that might still be lingering there. 

Hueningkai exchanged glances with Beomgyu and Taehyun. Silently, Taehyun and Kai moved to help Beomgyu to his feet, letting him lean on both of them as they stumbled into the clearing. 

It was that ethereal moment after a storm. The rain had cleared, but the scent still lingered. The damp air felt like a refreshing glass of water as they breathed in. Clouds drifted around the moon, retreating. The ground was slippery and uneven beneath their feet. The whole clearing looked like something out of an action movie, like the wreck that the heroes leave behind. The kind of scene that they don’t show because it’s too sad. Whatever tables and decorations from the ball that remained were tattered and hanging limply. The tables lay on their backs, the legs stuck in the air helplessly. Patches of grass and trees were burnt to a crisp. Rocks of all sizes were scattered across the grass. Students stumbled around the clearing, most of them either crying or in complete shock. And in the middle of it all lay two bodies, the aftermath of a battle of the ages.

“Beomgyu! Are you hurt?” Dicarius landed in front of them, his eyes on Beomgyu’s ankle.

“I got hit with a rock. I think my ankle might be broken or something.” Dicarius nodded and tucked his hands around Beomgyu’s shoulder and knees, swooping him into his arms. Beomgyu let out a yelp but let Dicarius carry him.

“I’ll get him to the infirmary. Do you know where the other students are?” 

Hueningkai nodded. “I sent them to the clearing. With the uh, spirits.” 

Dicarius’ brow furrowed. “You found the spirit clearing?” Hueningkai nodded slowly. “Huh. Well, make sure that they know that it’s safe to come out now. Dante won’t be waking up anytime soon.”

“What are you going to do about him?” Taehyun asked, his eyes glued to Dante’s crumpled body.

Dicarius sighed. “That’s not something you need to worry about. We’ll take care of him. You can come see Beomgyu later, okay?” And then he flew off, leaving nothing but a few feathers. Hueningkai blinked at the empty air.

“So. Should we go to the clearing?” Taehyun shrugged.

“You lead the way.”  
⋯  
“Taehyun, that is the most kdrama shit I’ve ever heard-”

“It’s not! It’s clearly platonic.”

“Yeah, Yeonjun, gotta take one for the boys. And then wipe away their tears as they cradle you in their arms afterwards-”

“Shut up, Kai!”

After the long process of finding and gathering all of the students- which involved quite a bit of hugging and crying- the students were informed that they would be on break for a little while as the faculty got everything sorted out. They were pretty much stuck inside, since apparently it was still too dangerous to go out anywhere near the forest. Dante had awakened a multitude of dark spirits, most of them small, but it would still take a while to get the school grounds safe again. Until then, they didn’t have any classes. 

As soon as the teachers told them that it was okay to go back to their rooms, the four of them had begged to let them see Beomgyu. They had met Daniel and Sana along the way, bringing them to where they were now, sprawled in the hallway outside of the infirmary, waiting for Beomgyu to emerge. 

“So, Taehyun was with Beomgyu, and Yeonjun and Soobin- you two were together?” Sana raised her eyebrows and pointed at the two of them, who were currently sitting next to each other, shoulders pressed together. Soobin flushed and averted his eyes, moving slightly away from Yeonjun.

Yeonjun cleared his throat. “Yep. Yeah, we were together.”

Daniel was clearly holding back a playful smile. “Doing what?”

Yeonjun glared at him. “Sitting. Hiding. Trying not to die.” 

“Mhm. Must’ve been some pretty intense sitting.” Yeonjun opened his mouth to respond but just then Hueningkai spoke up.

“Do you know if anyone else was injured?” He blurted, unable to stop himself. He had been agonizing over those thoughts ever since the fight ended. He had done his best to get everyone to safety, but what if it wasn’t enough? What if he could’ve saved someone if he had just been there sooner? 

Sana’s expression sobered. “A few people got burned, but nothing that won’t heal in a week or so. Jihyo got kinda scratched up and bruised, she spent the whole time running around looking for people. Felix sprained his ankle and Chan was carrying him on his back, so he’s a little bit sore...” She continued on, naming different people who sprained something here or got bruised there. “But overall, no one is seriously hurt. I mean, Azula did a pretty good job keeping the fight away from everyone else.” At the mention of Azula’s name the air in the room went cold. No one had seen or heard anything about her since the fight. 

Hueningkai’s stomach churned with fear. “You don’t think that she’s-” 

“You’re all here?” Beomgyu stood in the hallway, propped up with a pair of crutches, his right ankle was wrapped up in a bright white cast. His face broke out into a bright smile at the sight of all of them waiting for him. 

“Beomgyu! Bro, I was so worried.” Daniel tackled Beomgyu in an aggressive hug, but quickly caught himself. “Shoot, did that hurt?” Beomgyu shook his head.

“I’m on some pain medication. You can manhandle me all you want.” Sana walked over to him and clung to his side.

“Please don’t go sacrificing yourself again anytime soon, okay?” 

Beomgyu laughed. “I didn’t sacrifice myself. Just my ankle.” Yeonjun slung his arm around Beomgyu’s shoulders and grinned at him.

“We’re glad to have you back.” As the three of them had their reunion, Hueningkai became aware of how out of place the other three of them were, standing awkwardly a few feet away. Beomgyu seemed to notice, turning his gaze to the three of them. 

“Hey, guys.” They all stared at each other in silence, not really knowing what to say. There was an unspoken question that bounced between their wary gazes. The connection that they all shared earlier that night- it could’ve easily just been the adrenaline and fear talking. But Hueningkai wasn’t sure if he wanted it to be. Despite having barely talked to Beomgyu, he felt oddly drawn to him. When he had dove in front of Beomgyu, it hadn’t been because of some hero complex, but out of an instinct to protect him. And even Yeonjun, the recipient of Kai’s endless jealousy and pain, seemed to bring a certain comfort in the way that he smiled at Hueningkai. 

Daniel exchanged a glance with Sana and slowly began to back away. “Okay, well, we’ll just leave you five to… talk. See you later, Beomgyu! Hope your ankle feels better soon!” The two of them scurried down the hallway and around the corner. Leaving the five of them to stand and stare, thinking of something to say.

Yeonjun was the first to break the silence with a chuckle. “Not to make it sound like we’re in some sort of polyamorous relationship, but what are we?” 

Beomgyu nodded. “I think that Hueningkai about to sacrifice himself for me and me doing, uh-” he gestured to his foot, “-this for Taehyun kind of says something.” 

Soobin shrugged. “It would be awkward to just pretend that nothing happened. I mean, this stupid ball- it changed a lot of- things.” Hueningkai didn’t miss the way he looked at Yeonjun. 

Taehyun looked around at all of them with a nod. “I find you all reasonably pleasant to be around.” Hueningkai hid his laughter behind his hand.

“Taehyun, that’s the weirdest-” He cut himself off, shaking his head. He grinned at the other four boys around him, a sudden burst of confidence and calm overtaking him. This felt right, what was there to be afraid of? “Friends? As in, more than just politely talking about how tired and burnt out we are during class and awkwardly smiling at each other in the hallways, but actual friends who can hang out and laugh and have fun together.” 

Beomgyu returned his grin. “I like the sound of that.” The others all nodded their agreement, sharing shy smiles as they looked at each other with a newfound perspective. “Plus, I’m going to need a lot of people to help me until I get this cast off. I have a feeling that I’m going to get very whiny.” 

Yeonjun scoffed. “Get more whiny, you mean.” 

Beomgyu glared at him. “Hey!” He turned his gaze to Hueningkai. “But for real, thank you. You were ready to save my life.” Hueningkai flushed, not used to the attention.

“It’s nothing, really. I had to help.” Taehyun walked over to Beomgyu’s side and Hueningkai saw him whisper his own thank you to the other boy, telling him that he’d make up for it by being at Beomgyu’s beck and call while he had his cast on. Hueningkai saw Beomgyu’s face light up and turned away, letting the two of them have their moment.

Yeonjun pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Hey, it’s almost sunrise now. Do you want to go watch?” The four of them voiced their agreement, and they found their way to the nearest window, peering over each other’s heads to see the rising sun.

And even in this place that felt so unfamiliar, even in this strange world that had given them an infamous night like no other, the five of them surrounding each other as bright red and oranges were cast across the wispy clouds made each boy feel a little bit more at home. 

~end of first year~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: i’m not tired  
> Also me: “heumimgkai” 
> 
> asdgjahflk i'm SO nervous for this one so much happens but i hope you like the plot and stuff
> 
> oh and i'm sorry for my weird time skip if i wrote out each year in full this would be... too long... and second year is really short... just warning you...
> 
> comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	9. eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year! thank you to everyone who's commented and left kudos, we're already over 100!

Soobin adjusted his uniform as he walked into the clearing, the same one that had been used for the ball. He was surprised at the surge of fear that came with the familiar scenery. It had been months since that night, and yet its impact still hung over everyone’s heads. Judging by their ethics teacher’s bright smile, however, it looked as though the teachers were doing their best to move past the incident.

“Welcome back to school, everyone! It’s great to see you again!” Their ethics teacher waved at them all as the class wandered into the clearing. They only had about a two week break in between first and second year- it wasn’t like there was anything to do in this afterworld besides hang out with friends and catch up on sleep. Soobin felt his heart ache as he was reminded of the sheer loneliness he had felt in those two weeks. He couldn’t remember his family, but he still missed them like crazy. At least he had his new friends.

“Wow. Looks like they really put this place back together, huh?” Yeonjun had his eyes trained on the ground. The earth was smooth again and the grass had grown back in. “The only part that looks different is the trees- there’s still a few missing.” 

“Wait so-” Taehyun was also looking around the clearing with an eyebrow raised. “Azula can control the elements, our history teacher can do some dark voodoo magic, Dicarius is like a bird shapeshifter- but they draw the line at growing a few trees?” 

“Gardening is an extremely difficult art,” Hueningkai deadpanned. Taehyun rolled his eyes at him and Kai scoffed. “Oh, like you could grow so much as a dandelion.” 

“You don’t grow dandelions! They’re weeds! Do you think that I’m a weed gardener?”

“Say that a little louder, Taehyun. Make our entire grade think that you’re-” He was cut off as Taehyun tackled him, an arm around his neck. 

As the two of them bickered, Beomgyu was looking around the clearing. “It’s all fixed? Aw. I wanted to go find the spot where I fell and laugh at it.” He pouted. “I bet I could still find it.” Beomgyu took off running across the clearing. 

Taehyun’s attention was immediately diverted from Hueningkai to Beomgyu. “Slow down, idiot, you only got your cast off days ago!” He ran after Beomgyu, still yelling at him to stop. Soobin just laughed.

“Okay, everyone just settle down and gather in a circle around me.” The ethics teacher beckoned them to her. Slowly, everyone obliged. “This morning we’re just going to be playing a few games to work on class bonding and team building. School will always be more fun if you’re comfortable with the people around you. It’ll be fun, I promise!” Soobin smiled gently. Her enthusiasm was contagious. “First, let’s do an introduction! Say your name and a catchphrase to describe yourself.” 

Oh gosh. These types of games always made Soobin a little nervous. Having to think of something like this on the spot was making his palms sweat. Luckily, with their class of about forty people, Soobin had a little time to prepare before it was his turn. 

“I’m charismatic fox Yeonjun!” Yeonjun flashed a wink to his classmates and then turned to look at Soobin. 

“I’m, uh…” going off of Yeonjun’s example, Soobin went for something animal related. “Hippity hop bunny Soobin!” Oh no. Soobin screwed his eyes shut. That sounded really cringy. But when he found the courage to open his eyes again, Soobin was surprised to see everyone in the class gazing at him with fondness in their eyes. 

“Soobin, that was so cute!” Yeonjun pinched Soobin’s burning cheek. “Aw, you’re blushing.” Yeonjun wrapped his arm around Soobin’s shoulders and drew him in for a quick side hug before releasing him. One of the new things that Soobin gained in his friendship with Yeonjun? Lots of touching. All the time. Yeonjun needed skinship like a fish needed water. 

“I’m fierce tiger Hoshi!” A boy that Soobin recognized as Soonyoung did his introduction, despite the groans of his friends around him.

“You’re… literally a human?? There are actual tigers here.” A much shorter boy next to him rubbed his eyes in exasperation. “And we’re not calling you Hoshi.”

Soonyoung just glared at him. “Oh, but calling Mingyu a puppy every other second is perfectly fine.” That elicited even more heated arguing.

Eventually, after all of the chaos, their class managed to finish their introductions. Next was a grouping game. Each round they had to find a group of people who shared the same answers to the prompts shouted out by the ethics teacher. It started out simple, Soobin having to find people with his same birthday month or favorite color. But the prompts started to get more and more controversial.

“I know that I did NOT just see you with the mint chocolate people, Yeonjun.” Soobin stared at the blonde haired boy, betrayal written all over his face. 

Yeonjun stared back with just as much intensity. “It’s the best flavor, and I will go to war over this.” Soobin fake lunged at him, making Yeonjun laugh. Beomgyu rolled his eyes as he walked by them, shaking his head and looking sympathetically at Soobin.

“Don’t mind him and his tooth brushing fetish,” he mumbled.

Yeonjun whirled around, offended. “What did you just say??” 

But the ethics teacher was already moving on to the next game. “Now for our third and final activity. We’re going to try and pass this hula hoop-” she held it up in front of her- “around the circle as fast as we can!”

The students gathered around in a circle again and hesitantly linked hands. Soobin felt Yeonjun’s warm hand slip into his and was surprised at the fluttering feeling that it gave him. He had held other people’s hands on certain occasions, but the way that Yeonjun laced their fingers together and squeezed his hand gently felt more intimate than dragging your friend by the hand. But he was probably overthinking it. 

The hula hoop started to move across the circle and Soobin studied how it was done. The simplest method seemed to be putting your head through the hoop and then jumping out of it. Some of his classmates made it look effortless, but with Soobin’s natural clumsiness he doubted that it would be so easy. The hula hoop came to Taehyun, who stood next to Soobin. Taehyun maneuvered his way through the hoop quite gracefully, but when he looked at Soobin he groaned.

“Of course I’m next to Mr. Seven Feet Tall.” Soobin wanted to respond, but they were supposed to be doing this as fast as they could. Soobin ducked his head as much as he could, hitting his head with the hoop before he managed to get through it. The stress of everyone watching him drove him to get his feet out of the hoop as fast as possible (and if he tripped a little along the way, who cared?). 

Next was Yeonjun. Always the competitor, Yeonjun was already headed toward the hula hoop before Soobin was completely out of it. And that just resulted in a flying hula hoop and a panicked Soobin.

“Calm down, you’re making it worse!” But Yeonjun refused to stop trying, even though he was clearly out of sync. Everytime he dove for the hula hoop Soobin wasn’t able to raise it in time, creating nothing but awkward movements and a stagnant hula hoop. 

“Just raise your arm up, I got this.” Soobin quickly obliged- maybe a little too quickly. The hula hoop slid towards Yeonjun and hit him right in the face.

Soobin’s mouth dropped open. “I’m so sorry oh my gosh-” Yeonjun met his gaze and held it there for a second, both of them registering what had just happened. And then they burst out into laughter. Yeonjun’s laugh rang out over Soobin’s breathless one, as clear and sparkling as the sun above them. Soobin felt an immeasurable amount of happiness that filled him up from head to toe to the hand that was still holding Yeonjun’s. It was as if this particular moment could simply not get any better. 

Eventually Soobin had to gasp for breath. “We have to- actually do this-” He raised his arm- more carefully this time. Yeonjun nodded, still giggling, and slowly made his way through the hula hoop. Then he turned to pass it to the person next to him. Soobin had almost forgotten that they were still part of a game. Technically they were supposed to do this as fast as they could. Whoops. 

The hula hoop reached the end of the circle and their teacher grabbed it. “Good job! I hope that you at least had some fun today.” The students all released their hands, including Yeonjun, and Soobin’s smile naturally wilted a little. Huh. “Hopefully we’ll do more things like this in the future, but that’ll be up to the class president to decide! Speaking of, right now we’re planning on having the class president speeches at the end of the week. In case you’ve forgotten, the role of a class president would be…” 

A sigh escaped Soobin’s mouth and Yeonjun turned to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

Soobin shrugged. “I kind of want to run for class president.” Immediately scared of being judged, he quickly justified his thinking. “It just seems kinda fun, getting to plan all of those events and bringing the class together.”

Yeonjun grinned at him. “Well, that’s great! Do you have a speech?” 

Soobin groaned. “That’s the problem. There’s no way that I can just write an acceptable speech in a week. And even if I managed to do that, I’d definitely trip over all my words trying to recite it in front of the whole class.” Soobin’s mood plummeted just thinking about it. “And with all of the qualified, talented people in our class- I’d never get voted in. So there’s really no use in putting me through all of that stress and embarrassment.” Soobin finished his ramble and looked back over at Yeonjun, who was currently staring at him with wide eyes, blinking as he sputtered for something to say.

“Soobin- that’s- I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong that is.” Yeonjun went to grab Soobin’s shoulders but he flinched away.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to pity me. I don’t really want to run that badly anyway.” Soobin bit his lip, hoping that Yeonjun wouldn’t see through his lie. To his dismay, Yeonjun persisted.

Yeonjun forced Soobin to look at him. “Soobin. I don’t know what makes you so sure that you’re going to fail, but you’re completely off. You are more qualified to run this class than practically anyone else here- definitely more qualified than someone like me. I would vote for you in a heartbeat, and I know that many, many other people would too.” 

“Th-thanks,” Soobin mumbled, his throat dry. Yeonjun was still staring at him with those deep brown eyes, worry written across his face, and Soobin felt his skin prickle at the amount of attention. His words had hit a tender spot in Soobin’s heart, one that he had been trying to avoid.

“In fact,” Yeonjun turned his gaze from Soobin to their teacher, who was now asking for the names of students who would be running. “Teacher! I have another nominee for class president! Choi- mmf!”

Soobin slapped his hand over Yeonjun’s mouth. “What are you doing??” Yeonjun turned to look at him and pulled his hand off of his mouth.

“I’m helping you. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t take risks.” Soobin shook his head frantically. Yeonjun furrowed his brow. “C’mon, please? What are you so scared of?” 

That made Soobin freeze.  
⋯  
He was reminded of the memory that he had gotten back last year for mindfulness class. He had been fourteen, experiencing his first day of high school. Judging by the bell ringing and the crowd of students heading towards the dining hall, it was lunchtime. Soobin was walking with a smaller girl with short brown hair. 

“Are you sure that you don’t have the first lunch period?” Soobin looked nervous.

The girl shook her head sympathetically. “Sorry. I’ve got class.” Soobin’s shoulders slumped. She put her hand on his back comfortingly. “You’ll be fine! During homeroom I took a poll to see who else had first lunch, and there were a lot of really friendly people. I asked them if they would sit with you.” 

Soobin sighed. “That makes me seem even lamer, Arin.” There was a short pause. “Did they say yes?” The girl nodded enthusiastically. “Really? Who?”

“Almost everyone! There was Minho, Donghyun…” Arin continued listing off names. With every word Soobin felt more and more of his confidence return. Between all of those people who agreed, at least one had to actually sit with him, right?

They were approaching the dining hall now and Arin had to head off to class. “Just go find a table and sit down, I’m sure that they’ll find you.” 

Soobin did as she said, making his way to an empty table and sitting down. He pulled out his lunch bag from his backpack and opened it, pulling out its contents one by one. There was no one looking at him, right? It was just in his head. 

Soobin unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite, trying to look as cool as he could while sitting at a table by himself. He scanned the lunch line for the people that Arin had mentioned. He caught sight of a few and tried to make eye contact, but they turned away. Huh. He traced their figures as they got their lunches and started towards the tables. He tensed in anticipation as they got closer to his table, a greeting already rising in his throat. 

Only for them to pass by him without so much as a glance. One by one, like a series of raindrops falling before the downpour. Soobin could do nothing but watch as every single one of his classmates walked by his table, their eyes focused on their friends and their friends only. They had to have seen him- Soobin could see the flicker of guilt in their eyes as they walked by. But the guilt only lasted for a split second, and it clearly wasn’t enough to convince them to sit with Soobin. Shy, lame, boring, pitiful Soobin. 

Soobin sat frozen with his sandwich half raised to his mouth. Lies. It had all been lies. They had agreed to sit with him when it was Arin asking- a popular, pretty girl. Not a quiet loser like Soobin. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Soobin had and Arin had shared a preschool, she wouldn’t even be friends with him either. She would be just like the others, breezing past him like he was invisible.

Soobin kept his face neutral, but inside he was panicking more than ever. What was he supposed to do now? Half of him was still in denial. There had to be at least one person who would sit with him, even if it was solely out of pity. 

But the idea of someone sitting with him because they felt bad for him made Soobin sick. He threw his sandwich back into his bag and packed up his backpack. He wasn’t hungry anymore. Soobin shouldered his way out of the lunchroom with his head down. He felt an assortment of confused gazes on his back as he hurried out, but none of them came after him. No one wanted to waste their time worrying about him. No one cared enough to do so.  
⋯  
Soobin closed his eyes to shut out the memory. Yeonjun was still raising his hand to get the attention of the teacher. As soon as Soobin realized, he lunged to grab Yeonjun’s arm and pull it down, but Yeonjun struggled out of his grasp. 

“Why are you doing this?” Soobin hissed, still reaching for Yeonjun’s hand. 

Yeonjun stared him in the eye. “I can tell how much you want this. You just need a push, that’s all.” 

Soobin saw their teacher’s eyes fall onto Yeonjun’s hand and began to panic. “No, no, I really don’t. Please, stop.” Yeonjun’s gaze shifted from encouraging to concerned when he saw the genuine fear in Soobin’s eyes. Slowly, his hand lowered. 

“O-oh. Okay. Sorry.” Soobin felt a pang of guilt as he watched Yeonjun’s face fall into a frown, his eyes on the ground now. He had just been trying to help, and Soobin had acted like he was trying to cut off his arm. Well. He appreciated Yeonjun’s outgoing nature, just not when he tried to force it onto Soobin. 

But even though Yeonjun lowered his hand, their teacher had still seen it. “Yeonjun? Are you volunteering?” 

Yeonjun’s eyes widened. “Oh, um, no, that was a mistake-” But he was interrupted by an enthusiastic shout from Daniel across the crowd.

“Yeonjun? You’re running? That’s awesome!” His exclamation was met with a chorus of others expressing their gratitude as well. 

“You’ve got my vote, man.” A boy that Soobin didn’t even recognize came up to Yeonjun to clap him on the back. 

One of the other candidates smiled at him. “If I lose to you, I’ll at least know that the class will be in good hands. You’d do a great job.” Everyone else nodded in agreement, all turned to look at Yeonjun now. Soobin was still standing next to him, but he felt practically invisible, just like in the cafeteria all those days ago. But when he looked at his classmates’ grinning faces, he didn’t feel the same sinking feeling as he did in the memory. Their eyes were filled with overwhelming appreciation for Yeonjun, not distaste for Soobin or anyone else. 

Now that he thought about it, Yeonjun would be a great candidate. He seemed to know everybody to a certain extent, and he was excellent at making small talk. He was approachable enough for people to tell them their ideas, thoughtful enough to figure out how to execute them, and creative enough to combine the ideas into a fresh and fun event. He was pretty much perfect. 

Yeonjun just blinked at all of them, at a loss for words. “Th-thanks everyone, but I’m actually not-” 

“It’s fine.” Soobin leaned forward to whisper in Yeonjun’s ear. “Take it.” 

Yeonjun turned to look at Soobin, his eyes big and concerned. “But I never planned on-” 

“It’s meant for you. Look, you’ve pretty much been elected already.” Soobin patted Yeonjun’s shoulder, smiling to conceal the pain in his eyes. He stepped away from the other boy, wanting to be away from this crowd for a moment. 

He made it to the edge of the crowd before there was a hand grasping his wrist. “Soobin, wait-” Soobin automatically turned to look- a fatal mistake. Yeonjun was staring at him with pleading eyes, his plump lips parted in a frown, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. Soobin felt his own throat go dry at the sight. His mind screamed at him to let Yeonjun take his hand and lead him wherever he desired. 

But that meant going back to face all of those people, and Soobin was pretty sure that his tears wouldn’t hold out for much longer. So he ripped his hand away from Yeonjun’s grip, looking away to avoid the way Yeonjun’s beautiful face crumpled. 

“I’m sorry. You can go back, I’ll be fine. I just need some water.” Soobin refused to look back as he strode towards the school’s doors, feeling Yeonjun’s gaze boring into his back. A few tears trickled down his cheeks as he pulled open the door and slid inside. By the time he reached the nearest bathroom they were coming faster, a few sobs wracking his shoulders. Soobin hurried into a stall and closed the door, leaning back against it. 

And then he laughed, a stark contrast to his tear stricken face. Why was he crying? It made sense that someone like Yeonjun would get that kind of attention. He had known this for ages, since the very first time he saw Yeonjun, even since that eye opening first day of high school all those years back. There were just some people who were meant to be in the spotlight. Soobin was a member of the audience, watching from the back of the theatre.  
⋯  
“Beomgyu, you’re going the wrong way,” Taehyun sighed, grabbing the other boy by the strap on his backpack to stop him. Beomgyu froze and looked around, disoriented for a moment.

Once he got his bearings again he flashed a grin at Taehyun. “Whoops. Looks like I’m not quite ready to go back to class, huh?” Beomgyu tried to spin himself around in the right direction, but he ended up tripping over his foot and stumbled. 

Taehyun naturally rushed forward to help him up. Memories flashed before his eyes, full of Beomgyu lying on the ground, his ankle crushed, his face contorted in pain, while Taehyun could do nothing but watch. “Are you okay? Is it your ankle? I told you, you have to be careful, especially when-”

Beomgyu brushed Taehyun’s hands off of him. “I just slipped. I’m fine.” His eyes glinted with amusement. “But it’s nice to see you so worried about me. I never realized how much you cared.” Taehyun knew that Beomgyu was just teasing, but he still found himself unable to meet the other’s eyes. 

“Let’s just go to class.” Taehyun strode ahead of Beomgyu, taking a breath. He thought that the weird protectiveness he felt towards Beomgyu would go away once he got his cast off, but it was still there. In fact, it almost got even worse. Beomgyu’s injury had done nothing but make him more reckless, and now Taehyun felt a strange obligation to keep him safe. 

He heard Beomgyu’s footsteps behind him and then the other boy was beside him again. Only this time, Taehyun felt Beomgyu’s fingers curl into the hem of his shirt. 

“Lead the way, Taehyunnie.” Taehyunn stared down at Beomgyu’s hand, trying to process the warmth that the sight gave him. 

“O-okay.” Taehyun made his way to their history classroom with Beomgyu trailing behind him, his hand still clinging onto Taehyun. 

“Welcome back everybody.” Their history teacher stood at the front of the class, the word “Nirvana” written in big letters across the blackboard. Taehyun sighed. Looks like they would be jumping right back into class. 

Once everyone was seated, the teacher began his lecture. “Last year we focused mostly on the history of the human world. This year, we’ll be learning about the Nirvana world.” There were a few excited murmurs from their non human classmates. 

The teacher turned to the board and began drawing a hierarchy. “The main government of Nirvana is in the form of a monarchy. The royal family is solely made up of dragons, which is why dragons are the most privileged life form in Nirvana. But how did the dragons manage to become rulers in the first place? What do we know about dragons so far?” 

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence. Taehyun glanced back at his classmates to see what was wrong. They were all trying to subtly stare at one person. Oh. Perched in the back corner was none other than Azula, looking awkwardly down at her desk. 

Azula spent the rest of their first year recovering from the battle. Taehyun didn’t know the extent of her injuries- no one saw her for months until one day she came back to class with a wrist brace and a slight limp. Taehyun still saw her favoring one foot over the other even today- although he wasn’t sure if it was a physical injury as much as mental. He could imagine that kind of near death experience could change you for life. And it showed. Azula had been quite reserved since the incident, refusing to tell anyone anything about Dante and what happened to him.

And today- Taehyun remembered Dante’s words to her all those months ago- calling her princess, telling her how lucky she was to be a part of the royal family. So right now Azula was being lectured about her own heritage. That was awkward. 

But someone had to speak up eventually. Taehyun sighed and raised his hand. “Dragons can control all four elements, which is more than any of the other creatures.”

The history teacher looked at him with obvious relief. “Exactly. All dragons are born with the ability to harness the elements, and so they were able to take control of Nirvana pretty early on. We’ll be defining the different time periods in Nirvana based on which dragon clan was ruling at the time. The first one is-”

“Sir?” There was a knock at the door, and a woman poked her head in. Taehyun vaguely recognized her as a staff member, one of the secretaries or something. “Can I see you outside?”

The history teacher startled, lowering his chalk from the board. “I’m in the middle of a lesson, can it wait?” The secretary hurried over to him and whispered something in his ear, her hand concealing her words from the students. Immediately the history teacher dropped his chalk and headed for the exit.

“I’ll be back in a moment. Sit tight,” He called back to the class before he disappeared into the hallway. 

Everyone began to whisper, shooting glances at the back of the class. Taehyun discreetly looked behind him as well, trying to judge Azula’s reaction. If their teacher’s abrupt disappearance was anything to be wary of, she would know. But she looked back at them with the same blank stare she had since the start of class. 

After a numerous amount of murmurs and stares directed towards her, she rolled her eyes, leaning back in her chair. “I don’t know what that was about, if that’s why you’re looking at me. They’ve kept me in the dark ever since the fight. Trauma, and all that.” She smiled, but her eyes sagged with tiredness. “Unless you’re curious about the royal family, which I do know quite a lot about.”

It seemed like she was half joking to end the conversation, but a voice piped up next to Taehyun. “Are you really a princess? Do you know the current royal family?” Taehyun turned in surprise to see Beomgyu looking at Azula with wonder in his eyes.

Azula sighed and nodded. “Yep. My father was the king when I died. I wasn’t exactly a celebrity, though. Kind of an outcast. My family is quite… traditional.” Taehyun raised his eyebrows. Someone as skilled and impressive as Azula was an outcast of the royal family? It made him wonder what her relatives must be like. And what she did to rile them. 

“And since you all probably overheard the conversation during the battle, I might as well explain. During the reign of the first clan, there was a group of rebel dragons who were bitter about how the royal family had been chosen and wanted the throne for their own bloodline. There was a revolution in which the rebels ended up capturing and murdering one of the royal children. Since then that whole bloodline has been deemed “evil” dragons and was banished from the city. Our good friend Dante was of the same descent as those rebels. He was pretty bitter about being outcast, understandably. And he took that bitterness here, even though no one besides me would even remember what an “evil” dragon was. No one rejected him for his heritage when he was a student here- it was all in his head. But I guess he never got over the pain he experienced in his life.” Azula finished her speech and went back to staring at her desk, doodling something in her notebook.

There was a long silence. Everyone was frozen. The only sound that could be heard was the scratching of Azula’s pencil against the paper. There was a pattering of footsteps outside the door and all of a sudden their teacher was back, trying to act as casual as possible.

“I’m back, everybody- are you all okay?” Taehyun glanced around as his classmates. It did look as though they had all seen a ghost. But they managed to snap back into reality enough to give the teacher a reassuring response. “Okay, then. Let’s get back to the lesson.”

⋯

“Beomgyu? Can I see you for a moment?” Their history teacher called after Beomgyu as he prepared to leave. Taehyun stopped at the door when he heard his friend’s name being called. He saw Beomgyu’s face fall, although he disguised it with a quick smile directed at Taehyun.

“I’ll meet you outside, Taehyun.” Taehyun obliged, albeit a little hesitantly.

He tapped his foot impatiently, glancing up and down the hallway. Why would the teacher need to see Beomgyu? Had he overheard their conversation with Azula? Was Beomgyu in trouble? Was he going to be held back? Taehyun shook his head. He was probably overthinking it. 

But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to listen in. Just to be sure. Taehyun tip-toed over to the classroom and positioned himself as close to the door as he could without looking suspicious. 

“...grades were behind last year. If it weren’t for that last project we might have had to fail you.” Taehyun’s heart dropped. Beomgyu almost failed? Because of his grades? Taehyun had no idea. Beomgyu always talked like nothing ever bothered him, so how was he supposed to know how much the other boy was struggling? 

“I understand. I’ll work harder this year.” Beomgyu sounded tired. From what Taehyun knew about him, there was no way Beomgyu’s grades were low for lack of trying. No matter how careless he seemed, Beomgyu worked relentlessly at the things that were important to him. And graduating- which meant passing his classes- was what Beomgyu cared about the most. 

“I hope so. We’ll see how these first few months go, and if it’s needed we can set you up with a tutor.” 

“That won’t be needed,” Beomgyu responded quickly. Taehyun groaned internally. Of course Beomgyu was too proud to admit that he needed help from someone else. 

“Well, I hope that it goes well for you.”

“Thanks.” Taehyun heard the screech of a chair being pushed away from a desk, and quickly rearranged himself to hide the fact that he had been eavesdropping. Soon enough Beomgyu came rushing out of the classroom.

“Taehyun! Oh, you’re right here.” Beomgyu looked at Taehyun with bright eyes, and Taehyun was pissed. How could he just move on from that conversation like nothing happened? If he failed, he wouldn’t be able to graduate from the others. That kind of danger would absolutely break Taehyun, but Beomgyu concealed it like it was just a bad headache. 

Without thinking, Taehyun blurted, “I’ll tutor you.” 

Beomgyu’s smile dropped. “What?”

Taehyun shifted nervously, trying to gauge how Beomgyu would react. “I- I overheard your conversation in there. I had a pretty good grasp of history class last year. If it goes well for me this year, then I can help you too. And we don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want to,” Taehyun added on quickly. “We can just pretend that we’re hanging out.” 

Beomgyu blinked, his eyes softening. Suddenly Taehyun was being pulled forward into a hug. His arms automatically went to wrap around Beomgyu’s waist. Taehyun could smell Beomgyu’s apple shampoo, warm and comforting.

“Thank you, Taehyunnie.” Even after months of knowing Beomgyu, Taehyun’s cheeks still heated up at the nickname. It would always be his one weakness, the way Beomgyu said his name so carefully- like it was a precious object to be worshiped. 

“O-of course. It’s the least I can do.” Taehyun pulled away, gently as to not seem disgusted by the skinship. Normally he would be, but he could take a hug or two- from certain people. 

Beomgyu beamed at him, his energy restored. “Enough of that. Don’t we have art next? You should show me that dance you’ve been working on! Do you think that you’ll ever do a dance to a song that I’ve written? I could write one just for you, if you want…”

Taehyun felt himself smile, letting Beomgyu ramble as he pleased. He stole a glance at Beomgyu’s side profile, the gentle slope of his nose, his long eyelashes, his sparkling eyes. Taehyun smiled and moved closer to Beomgyu, slipping his hand into the crook of the other’s elbow. Beomgyu looked down in surprise, but Taehyun stayed staring straight ahead, pleading that the other wouldn’t mention it. 

He could practically feel Beomgyu’s smile raining sunlight down on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally i was going to make hoshi an actual tiger but i was like no let's let him suffer 
> 
> Fun fact: Soobin’s memory is something that lowkey happened to me once in kindergarten but we do not have time to start unpacking that :D
> 
> anyway i hope that you all had a great holiday season and thank you for reading!
> 
> comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	10. nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WAIT I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO ITALICS ASHLDKGAKJD this has been a learning experience,,, thank you for sticking with me and my constantly changing formatting 
> 
> this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but i'm gearing up for a few longer chapters ahead. enjoy!

Beomgyu was sitting cross legged on the floor of his dorm, Taehyun across from him. He had his notebook sprawled out on his lap, random textbooks and papers scattered around them. It had been about a month since school started, and their first history test was coming up. 

Beomgyu massaged his temples. “Okay. The Nirvana throne was passed down by blood until the fourth generation, when the king died unexpectedly before he could have children. So it then went to his daught- nephew- brother! And then that king screwed everything up because he didn’t have any respect for the other species in Nirvana.”

Taehyun nodded slowly. “Elaborate on ‘screwed everything up.’”

Beomgyu’s mind drew a blank. “Um. He was… really mean?” 

Taehyun sighed. “It’s a little more than that.” When Beomgyu just stared back at him, he continued. “First of all, there was the Preservation Act, which banned any other species from living in the dragon villages.” 

Beomgyu crossed his arms. “I don’t remember learning that. You’re a bad teacher.”   
  


Taehyun grabbed one of the papers on the ground. “It’s right here! On this paper that was sitting right in front of you!” 

Beomgyu snatched the paper and looked at it. “Ugh, you’re right.” He leaned back against his bed, tossing the paper to the ground. “I don’t have the memory for this.”

“You’ll get there,” Taehyun encouraged, his hands fidgeting awkwardly in his lap.

Beomgyu shook his head. “Nope. Might as well say your goodbyes, because I am never getting out of this school.” 

“Yes you will!” Beomgyu's gaze turned to Taehyun, surprised at the other’s enthusiasm. Taehyun cleared his throat, his eyes flickering away. “I- I mean, you’re really smart, you just need to find the proper study habits.” Taehyun’s hand extended awkwardly to pat Beomgyu on the shoulder in an attempt of comfort.

Beomgyu’s eyes glittered with amusement, but he feigned a pout. “I don’t believe you. Keep going.”

Instinctively, Taehyun continued. “And you’re really funny, and always in a good mood.”

Beomgyu hummed, still not satisfied. “Go on.” 

“Everyone likes you, they have even since day one, partly because you’re really han-” Taehyun paused abruptly, his mind finally registering what he was saying. 

Beomgyu grinned at him. “What was that? I’m really what?”

Taehyun glanced away, but not before Beomgyu caught the flash of nervousness in his eyes. “Shut up. I hate you.”

“Actually, you said that  _ everyone _ likes me, so surely that must include y-”

“Just do your work!” Taehyun’s glare was sharp as he shoved Beomgyu’s notebook back towards him. Beomgyu yelped in fear and picked up his pencil, going back to scribbling notes from the textbook. Taehyun could be scary when we wanted to. The text was littered with words that Beomgyu wasn’t sure how to explain, and on top of that there was just  _ so much _ information. Their teachers always said to only include the most important things, but then went and quizzed them on the most obscure parts of the lessons. Just to be safe, Beomgyu tried to write as much as he could.

His brow furrowed in concentration as he worked, his lips parting into a little pout as his eyes flickered from the textbook to the notebook. He was hunched over his work, his feet tucked in to curve his body into a little ball. His neck prickled as he felt someone’s gaze on him, but he shrugged it off.

“Cute.” Beomgyu’s pencil paused mid sentence. He glanced up to see Taehyun staring at him, looking as though he had been caught in a crime. His eyes were wide and a light pink blush dusted his cheeks, his mouth slightly parted. 

“Did I say that out loud?” His voice came out smaller than Beomgyu had ever heard it. When Beomgyu nodded slowly, Taehyun’s cheeks went up in flames. He scrambled to his feet, dropping whatever papers he had been holding onto the ground. “Um. Okay. I’m just gonna- bye.” Taehyun rushed away.

Beomgyu just blinked at the empty space where he had been sitting until he heard the sound of the bathroom door at the end of the hall slam shut. Once he realized that Taehyun wouldn’t be coming back too soon, Beomgyu relaxed, hiding his face in his hands.

“Oh my god. Did he call me cute?” Beomgyu couldn’t help the way his heart fluttered at the memory, the fondness in Taehyun’s voice, how he had looked so tiny and flustered under Beomgyu’s gaze. 

It had been so much easier last year, when Beomgyu just wanted Taehyun’s attention. He would do the stupidest things just to feel the other’s eyes on him. If you had told Beomgyu back then that in a year he would be friends with Taehyun, he would have been overjoyed. 

But being closer to Taehyun only increased the way Beomgyu wanted him. He needed to be near Taehyun at all times, or else he burned with jealousy. Keeping Taehyun to himself was not an easy task, especially when Taehyun was so popular amongst their class. He still remembered that day he watched Taehyun pull a letter out of his locker, the envelope sealed with a heart with Taehyun’s name written in fancy scrawl on the front. Beomgyu had gone to snatch it out of Taehyun’s hands- and surprisingly, the other had let him. 

“I don’t really want to date anyone,” he had said offhandedly back then, and his words pierced Beomgyu’s ego, deflating it like a balloon. 

He understood Taehyun’s reasoning for avoiding dating- they were only here for a limited amount of time, and no one wanted to go through the pain of having to say goodbye to a loved one. But Beomgyu was never one to reason. All he did was feel, and right now his feelings for Taehyun overpowered any sort of logic in his head. He would get Taehyun to date him. He had to. 

“Ok, I’m back, sorry about that.” Beomgyu looked up to see Taehyun standing in the doorway, his face restored to its normal color. “Where did we leave off?” 

Beomgyu shrugged. Looks like they were both choosing to ignore the previous incident. “The laws set by that evil king. I looked them over while you were gone. I think that I’ve got them down.” 

Taehyun smiled. “Good. The rest of the first clan era is pretty straightforward, I can help you with it next time.” 

Beomgyu breathed a sigh of relief, gathering up all of his books and depositing them back on his desk and into his backpack. “Nice. What’s our next class?” 

Taehyun pulled out his phone to check. “Art.” 

Beomgyu gasped. “Oh!” Taehyun looked up, startled. Beomgyu smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I just remembered-” he went digging through the papers on his desk before triumphantly pulling out a small pile of pages, music notes scrawled across the front. “I wrote this song, and it’s- um, two parts,” Beomgyu rubbed the back of his neck, a wave of shyness overtaking him. “Yeonjun told me that you can sing- I would ask him to do it, but he always tries to outshine me- so I was wondering if you could help me?” His voice trailed off meekly. 

Taehyun was staring at the ground. “I can’t sing.” 

Beomgyu frowned. “But Yeonjun said that you did. With him. And he said that you were really good.” 

Taehyun shifted his weight awkwardly. “Well- I know how.”

Beomgyu grinned. “That’s great! Then,” Beomgyu walked closer to Taehyun and held him by the shoulders, his eyes wide and pleading as he stared into the other boy’s eyes. “Will you help me? Please?”

Taehyun’s eyes widened slightly as he glanced from Beomgyu’s hands on his shoulders back up to his face. He swallowed harshly, conflict written all over his face. 

Internally, Beomgyu was also screaming. But he yelled at himself to keep his cool. He almost had Taehyun on his side. He just needed to push a little further. 

Slowly, Beomgyu slid one of his hands up Taehyun’s shoulder, across his collarbone, before finally resting on the side of his neck. His skin was warm to the touch, and Beomgyu could feel Taehyun’s pulse starting to speed up under his thumb. He leaned impossibly closer, putting on the most innocent face he could muster. 

“You’ll do it for me, won’t you?” Beomgyu’s voice dropped an octave, quite the contrast from his usual higher, energetic tone. 

“Yes, yes, fine.” Taehyun brushed away Beomgyu’s hands, turning away, suddenly very interested in the door behind him. His voice came out slightly strained, but still audible. “I’ll help you.” 

Beomgyu smiled, relief washing over him. “Thank you. It’s not that hard, here’s the music.” He handed Taehyun the paper and watched as the other looked over the notes and lyrics. Beomgyu bit his lip nervously as he waited for Taehyun’s reaction. This song was- special to him, and it was really important that Taehyun liked it too. 

At first Beomgyu thought that it was all over- Taehyun seemed to be almost glaring at the words on the page- but he replaced his frown with a smile after reading through the whole song. “This is really good, Beomgyu.” 

Beomgyu couldn’t help the way his face lit up. He looked away, trying to play it cool. “Thanks. Should we try it?” Taehyun paused for a moment before finally nodding. Beomgyu tried to look as reassuring as possible as he pulled out his phone and began to play the instrumental that he had recorded of the song last week. As the last notes of the intro played, Beomgyu signaled for Taehyun to start. 

_ Like early morning mist _

_ You approach me _

_ Your long hair flowing _

_ And whispering with a soft smile _

_ Whenever I see her, I'm not lonely _

_ Even if I’m with my sad heart _

_ It just disappears far away _

_ She's my fairy of shampoo _

_ From this moment on, I will love her _

Taehyun’s voice was like nothing that Beomgyu had never heard before. Beomgyu had expected Taehyun’s singing to be more reserved, able to carry a tune but too shy to really carry. But he was so, so wrong. Taehyun’s tone was crystal clear, slightly higher pitched than Beomgyu’s and more nasal in a way that made his voice resonate across the room in a way that Beomgyu was immensely jealous of. 

There was a soft smile on Taehyun’s face as he sang, his eyes sparkling as he looked down at the lyrics. He was caught up in his own world, and Beomgyu couldn’t help but stare. In fact, he was so distracted by Taehyun that he completely forgot to start singing himself until Taehyun looked up at him in confusion. 

“Oh- sorry,” Beomgyu mumbled, hurriedly continuing his part. But he was barely paying attention to the song now. How had he never heard Taehyun’s singing before? If Beomgyu had a voice like that, he’d be singing everyday in the hallways as he walked to class. 

But as he kept watching Taehyun, he noticed a sudden change. There were no longer stars in Taehyun’s eyes. His shoulders were slumped, and even his bright voice had lost the vigor that it had at the beginning. Beomgyu frowned. Something was bothering Taehyun, and Beomgyu made it his new mission to find out what it was. 

As soon as the song finished, Taehyun rushed to grab his backpack. “Anyway, I hope that helped, good luck with your song, and I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Okay.” Taehyun reached behind him for the door knob, but Beomgyu grabbed his wrist before he could do so. 

“Wait a minute.” Taehyun looked back at him, nervous as Beomgyu stared him down. “I can tell that something’s wrong. Seriously, why don’t you sing more often? You’re amazing.”

Taehyun flushed a little, glancing down at his feet. “It’s- it’s nothing.” Beomgyu raised his eyebrows, refusing to believe the other’s excuse for a second. Finally Taehyun sighed. “It’s a long story.”

Beomgyu glanced at the clock. “I have time.” He led Taehyun to the edge of his bed and sat down.

Taehyun looked down at his hands, his fingers constantly fidgeting. “I don’t really know how it started, or why. But ever since I got here, whenever I try to sing, I just get this- this sick feeling in my stomach. Like there’s something watching me, judging me, hating me. So even though I’m not against singing- in fact, I kind of enjoy it- I always avoided it.” 

“And then,” Taehyun took a staggering breath, “do you remember when we got that one memory last year?” Beomgyu nodded. “Mine was about the first time I ever wrote a song. It was just a casual thing that I played on the piano and sang along to a bit, but my parents- they were against it. They- they took the song that I wrote and threw it in the trash. They said something about me needing to be successful. As if they didn’t believe in my dreams at all. I was only seven, how could they- why couldn’t they just let me dream, you know?” Taehyun’s face had been somewhat static for most of his speech, but his voice became strained at the end, clearly holding back the emotions that the memory brought him.

Beomgyu scooted closer, pulling Taehyun into his shoulder without a second thought. Taehyun leaned into the other boy, his hands covering his face. Beomgyu’s hand rubbed back and forth across Taehyun’s back as he tried to think of the right words to say.

“I’m so sorry, Taehyun. No one should have to go through that. Of all the memories for you to get that day-'' Beomgyu's hand suddenly froze as he remembered Taehyun’s sudden mood shift on the day they all got their memories, the day that he had snapped at Beomgyu. “Oh my gosh. That’s why you got upset when I tried to promote my song.”

Taehyun groaned into Beomgyu’s shoulder. “I’m still really sorry about that. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

Beomgyu winced as he remembered Taehyun’s apology at the ball- and the way that Beomgyu had rejected him. He had been blinded by anger and the belief that Taehyun would never truly like him in the same way that he did, and as a result said a lot of things that he didn’t mean. “And I should’ve let you explain. But that’s not important now.” 

Beomgyu pulled back from the embrace, putting his hands on Taehyun’s cheeks, his heart squeezing when he saw the tear tracks that now stained Taehyun’s beautiful face. “You are an amazing singer, Taehyun. Better than anyone else that I’ve heard. You deserve to be happy, to get to do what you love. We only have so much time before we go back into the craziness of life. We might as well use it as best as we can.” Beomgyu smiled. “And the best part about being dead? Your parents aren’t here. We don’t have to worry about them.”

Taehyun glanced up at Beomgyu in confusion. “We?”

Beomgyu smiled shyly. “Well, I’ve done my fair share of music here, so I was thinking that I could help you? We could take it one step at a time, as slowly as you want until you’re comfortable. If that’s okay with you, of course.” 

Taehyun’s smile could light up a city. “I would love that.” 

The word love would ring through Beomgyu’s head for the rest of the day, keeping him awake for hours with sudden bursts of giggles muffled into his pillow. Taehyun would be the end of him, but to be honest- Beomgyu didn’t mind. 

⋯

Yeonjun’s feet pounded hard on the dance floor as he repeated the tiring sequence once again. His lungs were begging for a break, but Yeonjun wasn’t ready to give in quite yet. He wanted to savor these last few moments of dancing, where he was focused so much that he didn’t need to think about school or his new presidency or a certain dimpled, purple haired boy.

Yeonjun finally let himself rest, bracing his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He had been trying to confront Soobin for weeks now, but everytime he tried to bring up the subject of orientation Soobin would always change the subject or make up an excuse to leave. 

Was he hurt that Yeonjun was voted class president? Soobin had looked sincere when he congratulated Yeonjun after the announcement was made, but it would make sense for him to be a little upset. Yeonjun was upset himself, to be frank. Soobin deserved this position a million times more than he did. He tried to play it off, but Yeonjun saw the passion in his eyes, the hopefulness in his voice. But if he wanted it so badly, why couldn’t he bring himself to go for it and run?

Yeonjun supposed that he and Soobin did differ quite a bit in their outgoingness. Yeonjun pretty much never shut up in class, while Soobin spent most of the time taking diligent notes. Yeonjun tried to put himself in Soobin’s shoes. Soobin was talkative and friendly with the people he was close with, but with strangers he was more shy. But always incredibly sweet and sincere in a way that made everyone love him from the second they met him. 

Yeonjun was positive that Soobin could have won that vote. For some reason, Soobin didn’t see how universally liked he was across their class. Yeonjun had never heard anyone say one bad thing about him. Soobin needed to understand that, but he wasn’t going to realize unless someone spelled it out for him. He wouldn’t understand how great of a class president he would be unless someone handed it to him.

That’s it. An idea popped into Yeonjun’s brain. Every president needs a vice president, don’t they? And there were no rules against Yeonjun appointing someone to help him. He could help Soobin gain confidence while also taking off the pressure on his own shoulders from trying to run their class all by himself. It was a win-win. 

Yeonjun burst out of the dance practice room, not even bothering to shut the door. He had texted Soobin and asked to meet up with him after class. There was no sight of him in this hallway, but maybe if he just turned the corner…

“Oh! Yeonjun!” Soobin stood over him, phone in hand. Yeonjun practically collided with Soobin, quickly withdrawing and apologizing. 

“Agh, sorry.”

Soobin held up his phone, referencing Yeonjun’s texts. “Did you need to talk to me about something?”

Yeonjun’s face lit up. “Yes! Okay, so I was thinking about how you didn’t get to run for class president and how I felt really bad- don’t you dare run away from me,” Yeonjun growled, grabbing Soobin’s wrist before the other could turn away. Soobin looked back at him, his expression pained. Yeonjun raised his eyebrows. “This is serious. But I have a way to fix it.” Yeonjun took a deep breath, a weird bout of nervousness churning in his stomach. “Will you… be my vice president?” 

Soobin’s face went through a series of emotions. His brow furrowed in confusion before his eyes widened in surprise, his whole expression finally drooping when he realized what Yeonjun was asking. “Thanks for offering. But that’s not a good idea.”

Yeonjun shook his head, squeezing Soobin’s wrist tighter. “This is what I mean. You don’t realize how great of an idea this is. I know that you’d be a great class president, but for one reason or another you don’t feel the same.”

Soobin sighed, gently removing his hand from Yeonjun’s grasp. “Trust me, I’m not hurt about this anymore. You don’t need to feel bad for me.” 

Yeonjun let out a strangled groan of frustration. “This isn’t a pity move! Listen, Soobin,” Yeonjun grabbed Soobin's shoulders, forcing him to look directly into Yeonjun’s eyes and see the plain fear that was there. “I have no idea what I’m doing. I told myself that confidence would be enough to get me through this, but I’m so lost. I don’t know the first thing about planning or organizing events. But you do. You even told me about all of the ideas that you had. What was it you were afraid of, speaking in front of a crowd? I can do all of that. I can talk to everyone in our class about the things that you plan. See? We’d be a great team, just please, please, agree to help me.” Yeonjun finished with a huffed breath, his gaze flickering between Soobin’s eyes as he tried to gauge a reaction. 

Slowly Soobin’s mouth curved into a soft smile. “You really think that I’d be that good?”

Yeonjun let out a sigh of relief. “Yes. Absolutely.” 

Their conversation was slightly interrupted by a commotion down the hallway. Both Soobin and Yeonjun immediately turned to see what was going on. It was their history teacher, clearly arguing with another woman that Yeonjun recognized as one of the school administration heads. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but judging by their aggressive hand gestures and the harsh tone of their voices, it couldn’t be good. 

Their history teacher turned on his heel and began striding down the hallway towards Yeonjun and Soobin, gesturing behind him for the other woman to follow. Yeonjun’s eyes widened in fear and he grabbed Soobin’s arm and pulled him back towards the wall. They stood as still as possible, barely daring to breathe as the two fuming adults whizzed by them. Luckily they didn’t even give the students a second glance. 

Yeonjun released Soobin’s arm, shaking his head as he tried to brush off what had just happened. “A-anyway, I’ll have to ask one of our teachers at some point, but I don’t see why that wouldn’t be allowed- actually, I can do that right now.” Yeonjun’s face brightened when he saw their ethics teacher hurrying down the hallway, a stack of books clutched to her chest. “Excuse me!” She stopped and turned to face him, blinking in surprise, as if she hadn’t even realized he was there. 

“O-oh. Hi, Yeonjun!” She gave him a signature warm smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“So I was just talking with Soobin here,” Yeonjun gestured to the boy next to him, who gave a small wave, “And I realized that it would make my job as class president so much better if I had someone to help me. I know this might be out of the ordinary, but can I appoint someone to be my vice president?” 

Their ethics teacher glanced between the two students, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “Y-yeah, I don’t see why not.”

Yeonjun grinned. “Great! So is there anything I should do to make it official, or…” He trailed off as he noticed their teacher becoming more and more distracted, her wide eyes constantly glancing down the hallway as if she was waiting for someone to appear.

“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. But I’m actually a little late for a- a meeting, so I’ll see you two later?” She didn’t wait for a response before rushing down the hall, leaving nothing behind but the clicking sound of her heels on the floor.

They both stared at her retreating figure before Soobin finally spoke. “Do you think something’s wrong?”

Yeonjun’s first reaction would be to say yes. Three teachers who seemed to be in complete distress? Things certainly didn’t seem great. And after the chaos that was last year, Yeonjun wasn’t eager to brush off the faculty’s suspicious behavior. But after looking at the fear written over Soobin’s face, Yeonjun realized that it was not the time and place to worry about this. He would have to investigate later.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. The more important thing is that you,” Yeonjun poked Soobin in the cheek, chest warming when he saw Soobin giggle and playfully lean away from the touch, “are now my new second in command.” 

Soobin still looked slightly shocked. “I can’t believe it. I’d never even considered that something like that might be possible.” 

Yeonjun chuckled. “That’s what I’m here to do. Defy the impossible.”

Soobin tried to conceal his grin behind a hand. “I’m just- I’m really excited about this. Thank you so much. You know,” He put a hand on Yeonjun’s shoulder and let his fingertips trail down his arm, sending a shiver up Yeonjun’s spine. “If I had to choose a vice president, I would choose you too,” he said, voice dropping.

And even though they were just talking about unimportant class titles, Yeonjun couldn’t help but hear the intimate implication behind the words. President and vice president for now. Yeonjun could only hope for the future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LMAO I JUST REALIZED THAT THEIR HAIR COLORS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CHANGED BY NOW WHOOPS 
> 
> anyway, sorry that kai wasn't in this, but he has a plot of his own going on. i feel like i have too many subplots going on in this fic, but it'll all come together... hopefully...
> 
> thank you for reading, and as always comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	11. ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is, as hyuka would say, "kinda sus tho" (if you have not watched that interview i highly recommend)
> 
> also there's one scene of minor violence just a warning

Hueningkai paced back and forth across the grass, watching the leaves crunch beneath his feet. Every other minute he was hit with another wave of icy fear as he remembered what he was about to do. He kept turning his phone on and off, not really sure what he was looking for. Maybe a message from Soobin saying that he couldn’t meet him after all. In fact, Kai could text him right now and make up some excuse about how he was too busy, delay until tomorrow- no. He had been putting this off for far too long. If he chickened out one more time, Soobin might never know his feelings until their final day here.

Hueningkai was planning to confess. Even just thinking about that made him drop into a crouch on the ground, groaning as he held his face in his hands. Really, what was he thinking? He was not the type of person to dramatically confess to their crush. He was certainly not the type of person who would receive the emotional, heartwarming acceptance after said confession. Even though his heart still held out some hope, Hueningkai’s brain was stuck on the idea that this was going to go terribly. 

But even if he didn’t want to be doing this, he knew that he had to. He’d been thinking about his memory from his past life- his brother, who effortlessly became their parents’ favorite for reasons that Hueningkai couldn’t figure out. He’d spent a long time staring in the mirror, wondering what was wrong about him for his own family to not want him. No wonder he had felt so uneasy around his friends at first, no matter how much they seemed to like him. He was worried that they would reject him the same way that his parents had. 

Hueningkai concluded that it was that fear of rejection that made him less desirable. He never spoke up too much, never laughed too loud, never tried to stand out in case people ended up hating him for it. But blending into the background, as safe as it seemed, would get him nowhere. Sure, no one would dislike him, but he was giving them no reason to like him either.

He thought back to his brother, the few glimpses that he had of him from that one memory. When he rode his bike he did it with a passion, his wheels skidding against the pavement as he turned in long, sweeping motions. The chances of him falling and hurting himself were high, but he still carried on with a confidence that Hueningkai didn’t have. Even though Kai rode his bike in a simple circle, as carefully as he could, in the end it was him who fell and got hurt. If he ever wanted to be as good as his brother, he had to learn how to take risks without fear of failure.

So that’s why he had left lunch early, sent a quick text to Soobin asking him to meet Kai outside at their usual spot, and then hurried to the said spot and waited. He had practiced what he was going to say into the mirror about a hundred times last night, and he whispered it to himself again and again as he continued to pace. Sound confident, but not forceful. Friendly, but not fake. Emotional, but not overbearing. It was all incredibly overwhelming.  _ If I just go over the speech one more time, I’ll be fine. _

“Kai?” There was the sound of a door swinging shut as Soobin walked over to him. “I saw your text. What’s up?”

Hueningkai just stared back at him, his mouth dry. He tried to think of something to say, but his brain felt like molasses, the words he prepared swirling around too slowly to form any coherent sentence. Soobin was still looking at him, eyebrows now drawn together in confusion. Panicking, Hueningkai said the first thing that came to mind.

“You’re late.”  _ Dear god, I’m an idiot. _ It was true, it had taken Soobin a suspiciously long time to see his text, but that was the absolute last thing he should be pointing out right now. He’d had to do some serious recovery to get back on track.

Soobin nodded, embarrassed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I was with Yeonjun.” And Hueningkai’s blood ran cold.

“O-oh.” He had been with Yeonjun. Of course. The two were practically inseparable now. Hueningkai couldn’t talk to Soobin for more than a minute before Yeonjun would worm his way into the conversation, sliding an arm around Soobin with a confidence that Kai never had. 

Soobin, oblivious to Hueningkai’s internal struggle, kept talking. “I have to meet him later, actually.” His eyes sparkled. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell anyone yet, it’s not official, but he asked me to be his-”

“Look over there!” Hueningkai blurted, desperate to interrupt Soobin before he could say those final incriminating words. Soobin’s eyes widened and he turned his head to look where Kai was pointing. As soon as the other was distracted, Hueningkai took a deep breath, pressing a hand over his pounding heart. 

Yeonjun had beat him. Even though Hueningkai had tried his hardest to be first, he had once again been bumped down to second place. And the difference was so small- Yeonjun had probably asked Soobin out fifteen minutes ago at most. Victory had been just inches from his fingertips. Even if Soobin had rejected his confession, at least he could have been first, could have proved that he was braver than Yeonjun. But now, all of those restless nights spent worrying about this day, the way he overcame his fear the moment he sent that text to Soobin, it had all been for nothing. Because Hueningkai had failed. Again.

“Kai, there’s nothing there.” Soobin shook his head with a sheepish smile. “You’re so weird. Anyway, was there something you needed to tell me?” Soobin caught sight of Hueningkai’s expression and immediately put a hand on his shoulder, worried. “Hey, are you okay? You look like you’re going to throw up.” 

Hueningkai’s shoulders sagged. “I meant to tell you something, but it’s kind of pointless now.” 

Soobin shook his head. “I’m sure it’s not pointless. Judging by the look on your face, it seems pretty serious. What is it?” 

Hueningkai sighed. At this point, it was futile. His friendship with Soobin was ruined the moment he realized that he was falling for the other boy, and there’s no way he could survive watching Soobin fall in love with someone else. So he might as well just go ahead and confess just for the heck of it. Their friendship’s grave had already been dug, so why not carve the gravestone while he was at it? 

“Soobin, I’ve wanted to tell you this for awhile. From the moment we got here, I’ve always felt this instant connection with you. I could name a million of the most endearing things about you. Your giggle, your dimples, your voice, your kindness. I value our friendship more than anything, but I slowly began to realize that there was something more.” Hueningkai took a deep breath, staring at the ground. “Soobin, I l-”

“Hueningkai? Oh, you’re out here.” Courtesy of Hueningkai’s terrible luck, the most important part of his confession was interrupted by the frantic voice of their history teacher. The said man let out a breath of relief when he saw Kai. 

“Y-yeah. Do you… need something?” Hueningkai slowly took in the disheveled appearance of their usually very put together teacher. His clothes were rumpled and his hair stood up as he ran a shaking hand through it. There was even some stubble on his chin.  _ The Grim Reaper can grow a beard? No, that’s not important right now,  _ Kai scolded himself.

“I’m just gonna,” Soobin jerked his thumb towards the door, backing away from the other two. His cheeks were slightly flushed, and he was avoiding eye contact with Kai. “Hyuka, if you need to find me later, just uh, text me?” 

“No, Soobin, wait-” But it was too late, the other boy had already turned and dashed back inside. Hueningkai groaned. Even after mustering up enough confidence to confess, he still managed to screw everything up. 

“No, it’s better that he’s gone.” The history teacher waited a moment to make sure that Soobin was gone before turning to Hueningkai. “We have some… sensitive information that we need to discuss with you.” 

Hueningkai’s eyebrows furrowed. “Sensitive information? Why do you need to discuss that with  _ me? _ ”

The history teacher glanced around, squinting at the trees. “It’ll all be explained. But first,” he gestured for the two of them to head back inside. “We shouldn’t be outside right now. The headmaster is making an announcement right now. No students are allowed to leave the building until we get this sorted out.” 

“ _ What?” _

“Like I said, it’ll all be explained in a moment.” The history teacher began walking steadily towards the door, Hueningkai trailing behind him. The two of them hurried down the hallway, twisting and turning past classrooms that Hueningkai barely recognized. Eventually the classrooms turned into offices and meeting rooms, and Kai realized that there was not a single student in sight. He had never been in this part of the building. 

“Right in here.” The history teacher turned the doorknob to a room labeled “conference room.” As the door swung open it revealed the chorus of heated voices coming from inside. The room was filled with teachers sitting around a long rectangular table. They were clearly in the middle of a big argument. Hueningkai could barely make out what they were saying with them all kept talking over each other. 

“Does this have anything to do with Dante?” He tentatively asked the history teacher. 

“In a way, yes, but it’s not what you’re thinking.” He cleared his throat and waved as a sign that he wanted everyone’s attention. “Hello everyone. I’m back, and I have the student with me.” Everyone’s eyes turned to Hueningkai, who gave a tiny wave. “Shall we get started?” They murmured in agreement as they all settled down in their chairs. “Kai, you can have a seat.” 

The history teacher made his way to the front of the room and began to pace. “Last year, the school faced one of its worst crises to date. We did not handle Dante in the way that we should’ve, and as a result the problem got out of hand. Since then, we’ve updated our containment cell and he is now under control. However.” Hueningkai already felt scared. “There were lasting effects of Dante’s attack that we had not anticipated. The school is in danger. But this time, we have someone who I think will be able to help us solve this problem” The history teacher raised a hand to gesture at Hueningkai and everyone’s heads turned to stare at him.

Hueningkai gaped in disbelief.  _ “Me?” _

⋯

Taehyun couldn’t believe what he was hearing. That was  _ his _ voice playing out of Beomgyu’s phone, his singing voice, with instruments and everything. He had cringed the first couple of times that Beomgyu had tried to record him, hating the sound of his own voice. But Beomgyu had kept reassuring him that it would all turn out fine, that the minute he heard his voice in an actual song that he would love it. And he was right.

“Do you like it?” Beomgyu blinked at him, his eyes wide and nervous. They were sitting on the floor of the recording studio, backs against the wall and shoulders pressed together.

Taehyun just nodded, almost speechless. “That- I- did you really do that yourself? That’s amazing.” 

Beomgyu laughed, shaking his head. “Thank you, but this isn’t about me. C’mon, how do you feel? Now that you’ve sung seriously for the first time.” 

Taehyun sighed, leaning his head back until it hit the wall. “I don’t know. It was weird, at first. I mean, there was still this dread in my mind that surrounded the idea of singing. And afterwards I always felt like I had done something wrong. But when I was actually singing, or when I listened to the song…” A smile spread across his face. “That was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”

Beomgyu grinned, wrapping an arm around Taehyun and squeezing him into his side. “That’s great! You picked everything up really fast. You’re better than me at this point.”

Taehyun shook his head, embarrassed. “No really, it’s not a big deal.”

“But it is.” Beomgyu’s expression turned serious. “And about that other stuff you mentioned- feeling guilty and dreading singing- do you think that’ll go away the more you do it?”

Taehyun let out a slow breath, thinking. “I’m not sure. Theoretically, it should, since that would show me that there’s no consequences for singing here. But then again, who really knows how anything here works?” They both chuckled at that. “That doesn’t really matter, though. The song, the experience, it’s all worth whatever bad feelings might come beforehand.”

Beomgyu glanced at him. “It’s really that important to you, huh?”

Taehyun shrugged. “Yeah. Honestly, the memory with my parents motivated me even more, now that I think about it. It’s my dream to pursue music, you know?” Taehyun turned to Beomgyu, his eyes alight with realization. “Hey, wasn’t your memory about music too? With the piano recital or something?” 

Beomgyu looked away, grimacing. Taehyun frowned. “What? Is that wrong?”

Beomgyu rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. “That is what I told you all. But it’s… not entirely true.” 

Taehyun’s mouth dropped open and he scrambled away from Beomgyu, getting to his feet. “You  _ lied? _ ”

Beomgyu reached a hand out to stop Taehyun from moving any further, his eyes desperate. “I didn’t want to, I swear. But it’s just,” He took a breath, looking down at his hands. “When I heard what the rest of your memories were, I realized that mine was kind of disappointing. And I didn’t want to ruin the mood, so I made up that whole thing about the recital. It was just for a dumb joke about how I was as famous as Yeonjun.” 

Taehyun’s eyes narrowed. “You… didn’t want to ruin the mood?” 

Beomgyu groaned, hiding his face in his hands. “It sounds stupid, I know. But in all of the friendships I’ve made here, I’m always the one who has to be exciting at all times. People expect me to have a funny comment to make or a crazy story to tell, and if I don’t, I’m out of the conversation. So I guess I made up a few things just so I could be heard.” Beomgyu’s voice trembled, but he kept going. “Looking back, that was a pretty bad move. And I shouldn’t have lied about something as serious as my memory. I’m sorr-”

He was cut off by Taehyun engulfing him in a hug, letting out a huff from the sudden impact. Taehyun had his arms around his shoulders, holding him tight. “You absolute dumbass.” Taehyun’s voice was right next to Beomgyu’s ear, and it made the latter shiver. “I’m not friends with you just because you’re a comedic relief. I don’t think anyone is. You’re caring, thoughtful, talented, how many times do I need to remind you? And besides,” Taehyun drew back, looking Beomgyu in the eye. “You could make anything sound exciting. Last week I listened to you talk about the different types of milk for like twenty minutes-”

“Does anyone  _ really _ care if they get 2% instead of 1%?”

“-and I was never bored. I don’t care what your memory was, as long as I know that it was part of  _ your  _ life. I’m sure that I would like every detail about your past life, no matter how big or small. So there’s no need to hide anything from me, yeah?”

His words triggered a sudden thought in Beomgyu’s mind. He had been debating this for a while, and he had been meaning to ask someone else about it. “Do you think that you would’ve liked me in my past life?”

Taehyun blinked, taken aback. “What?” 

“If we ever met in our past life. Well, for all I know we could have met in our past life and just can’t remember it. Either way, do you think we would’ve been friends?” Beomgyu looked surprisingly nervous.

Taehyun thought about it. He had been wary of Beomgyu at first, but he was almost positive that he would’ve fallen for the other boy’s charms no matter what world they were living in. “Yeah, I think we would’ve been friends.”

Beomgyu hummed in interest. “So you think our friendship is kinda- fated, almost? Like friend soulmates?”

Taehyun smiled softly. “Yeah. Friend soulmates.” He couldn’t help but grin at Beomgyu’s choice of words. 

Standing there, in the middle of the recording studio, Taehyun’s arms still on Beomgyu’s shoulders, it all felt like something out of a movie. The passage of time could no longer touch them, the sounds of the outside world never reaching their ears. It was just the two of them, reveling in their shy smiles and faint blushes. Taehyun wanted to take a mental picture of it all. 

But suddenly Beomgyu looked- almost nervous, his face suddenly going slightly pale as he cleared his throat. Taehyun took his arms off his shoulders, worried. “Taehyun,” he said carefully, “you know that the song you sang, the one I wrote- it’s a love song.”

Taehyun nodded, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, the lyrics made that pretty clear.”

Beomgyu swallowed. “Did you ever wonder…” his eyes slowly traveled up to meet Taehyun’s. “...who I wrote that song about?” 

Taehyun’s eyes widened. His first immediate, selfish, stupid instinct would be that Beomgyu wrote the song about Taehyun. But that had to be impossible. Having the person who inspired the song perform it as well? That was gutsy, even for Beomgyu. Besides, those lyrics… 

_ Your long hair flowing… whenever I see her, I'm not lonely… she's my fairy of shampoo _

They were about a girl. There was no other explanation. Was Beomgyu really going to tell Taehyun about some random crush he had on a girl? After everything that he pulled the other day, putting his face inches from Taehyun’s own, caressing his arm with gentle hands, staring at him with those giant dark brown eyes- and he liked someone else? 

“N-no,” Taehyun managed to muster, “I don’t know who you wrote it about.”  _ And I’m not sure if I want to know. _

Beomgyu let out a huff of frustration, drawing a hand through his hair. “I don’t really know how to say this. I know that dating in a place like this is weird and confusing and somewhat hopeless, but- I can’t wait any longer. I really,  _ really- _ ” Taehyun’s eyes widened as Beomgyu got closer, taking a step back. He tried his best not to show on his face the internal brawl that was happening in his head.

On the one hand, he thought that dating at Refund High was stupid. These people would be together for a few years before heading off into possible different worlds where they would never see each other again. And even if they did meet, they wouldn’t remember each other at all. Making a relationship that has a time bomb on it will only result in destruction and broken hearts. There was no other way to put it.

On the other hand, Taehyun really did like Beomgyu. He had been so determined not to, but he had finally relented. Beomgyu was just the definition of boyfriend material, able to read Taehyun like a book and always knowing what to do to make him feel better. He was incredibly handsome, and charming enough that he had half the school head over heels for him. And the fact that he chose to spend time with Taehyun, when he could have anyone in the world by his side in an instant- it made Taehyun feel like flying. 

But Taehyun’s past, even though he couldn’t remember it, it had taught him that rational thinking was the way to survive. Gambling his heart and feelings for a few years of happiness was not a beneficial deal. And there was still that voice in the back of his head, telling him that Beomgyu would never set his sights on someone as average as Taehyun.

Just like Taehyun said, Beomgyu could read him like a book. He could see the conflicted thoughts flashing across Taehyun’s face, no matter how hard he tried to hide them. The light in Beomgyu’s eyes died. He stopped advancing towards Taehyun, his arms falling limply at his sides. His face went slack, no hurt in his eyes, just utter disappointment. 

“Nevermind.” The word hit Taehyun like a truck. “I’ll just- I’ll see you later, okay?” Beomgyu couldn’t even look at Taehyun as he grabbed his phone and headed out the door. He didn’t glance back to see if Taehyun would follow. And for some reason that hurt the most.

Taehyun didn’t even realize that he was crying until he saw the tear hit the top of the piano he was standing by. He quickly reached a hand up to drag at his face, rubbing away the tears. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It had been right in front of him, the moment that he had been dreaming up every night for weeks now, and he had pushed it away. For someone who constantly berated Beomgyu with insults of “idiot” and “dumbass,” Taehyun realized that he was the only one without a brain here.

⋯

“Okay, so let me get this straight.” Hueningkai rubbed at his temples as he tried to process the influx of information. “Dante isn’t a threat anymore, but something else related to him is? What does any of that have to do with me?”

The history teacher took a seat across from Hueningkai. “Do you remember on the night of Dante’s attack, when you communicated with those spirits?” Hueningkai nodded. “Describe what happened.”

Hueningkai blinked, a little flustered. “Well- it felt like they were talking to me, completely normal, but in my head? It’s hard to explain.”

The history teacher stared at him. “And they reached out to you first?” Hueningkai nodded. “See, that kind of thing doesn’t happen to regular students here. In fact, there are only a few select beings that have that power.”

Hueningkai’s eyes widened. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yes. Even I can’t communicate with spirits in that way. This is a very special case, that- to be honest, we haven’t seen before.” 

Hueningkai just stared at him. “Why? Why me?”

The teacher sighed, shaking his head. “We’re still trying to figure that out. But right now, all that matters is that you have this ability that none of us do. It’s going to be necessary with the situation at hand. Dicarius, care to elaborate?”

Hueningkai’s head whipped around to look at Dicarius, seated at the other end of the table. “When Dante attacked, he didn’t do it alone. He entrusted the help of other creatures who live outside of the Refund High boundaries, like fire dogs and dark spirits. The fire dogs, while large and quite dangerous, have a cowardly nature. They were either killed in battle or fled soon after Dante was defeated. But the dark spirits… they’re a different case.”

Dicarius let out a breath, preparing for a story. “Dark and light spirits were born simultaneously during the creation of this world, this afterlife. No one knows why the dark spirits were created. The main theory is that there needs to be evil in order for there to be good. But the dark spirits have always been bitter that they have to be treated differently. They can’t live in the same place as the light spirits- that’s why we have the protective wall. Their world isn’t much different from the light spirits’, but it’s more the idea that someone else has something that they can’t have. It’s slightly similar to Dante’s backstory, which is why they were so sympathetic to his struggle. They’ve been scheming to take over this territory for years- so when he gave them a chance to, they accepted. And now they’ve come too far to give up.”

Hueningkai furrowed his brow. “So those dark spirits, they’re…causing trouble?” he immediately glanced towards the nearest window as if one would appear right this second. 

Dicarius nodded. “Exactly. They are much harder to catch and have much more motivation to stay than the fire dogs. They’ve been laying low for the past few months, but we think that they’re gearing up to attack soon.”

Hueningkai’s stomach dropped. “Attack?”

“We’ve been making preparations for months, don’t worry. But these spirits are unexpected, hard to predict. The only other creature that truly understands how to fight them is…”

The realization slowly dawned on Hueningkai. “The light spirits.” The heavy silence in the room confirmed that he was correct. 

Dicarius nodded. “There’s no danger of the light spirits switching sides and fighting against us, but by nature they’re independent and very cautious. They won’t have the initiative or motivation to aid us in this fight. Honestly, they probably wouldn’t have intervened in the Red Moon Ball fight if it weren’t for you.”

Hueningkai’s head spun. “Whoa.”

The history teacher butted back into the conversation. “We think that you might have a special connection with these light spirits that might help us get them on our side, but we’re going to have you do a few things just to make sure. Can you close your eyes for me?” Hueningkai did so, albeit a bit nervous. “Good. Now, can you feel the light spirits right now? Can you sense where they are?”

Hueningkai didn’t really know how to go about… sensing for light spirits, but he had to try. He pictured the forest right outside the room window, imagined himself walking through the trees and searching for those creatures. He felt the light breeze on his face, the sun beating down on his skin, the smell of fresh air overtaking him. The conference room and all of the teachers watching him dropped away. Slowly, he began to feel the overwhelming presence of all of the light spirits sitting in the forest. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel their energy radiating out like a halo around their body. There had to be at least a hundred of them just in that one area. 

“Yes, I can feel them.” 

“Good.” The teacher’s voice slightly broke Hueningkai out of his trance. “Can you try summoning one for us? Outside the window?”

Hueningkai concentrated again. Summon them? He looked down at the grass and imagined a light spirit sitting right there. Nothing. He stared harder. Nothing. Hm.  _ Dicarius had said that light spirits are independent. They probably won’t come unless it's out of their own will. I have the ability to talk to them, so maybe if I… ask nicely?  _ It sounded stupid, but Hueningkai had no better options.  _ Hey, um, spirits? _ He paused for an answer, but nothing came. _ Can one of you come here? _ He blinked a few times at the ground in front of him before startling at the sudden spirit that appeared there.  _ Oh. Hi. _ It was small and rather cute, in the shape of a regular looking bunny.  _ A bunny. Of course. _ He couldn’t get Soobin off his mind, even here.

Hueningkai opened his eyes. “I think I did it.” The teachers’ heads all swiveled to stare out the window and sure enough, a small bunny sat there. Murmurs of amazement drifted across the room. Even the history teacher looked a little taken aback.

“Huh. That’s- we’ll have to look more into this. Kai, starting from when you got here, has anything happened to you that would lead you to believe that there was something different about your soul? Did Queen Yemma say anything out of the ordinary to you? Do you have any of your memories back?”

“I- I- don’t-” Hueningkai’s head was pounding as he tried to answer all of the teacher’s rapid fire questions. This kind of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to him. He was supposed to be ordinary. 

“Sir?” A nervous voice rang out from across the room. A young woman that Hueningkai didn’t recognize was pointing a shaking finger out the window. Hueningkai followed her gaze, already afraid of what he might see. 

There was a wolf sitting outside the window. It looked identical to the one that Hueningkai had talked to on the night of Dante’s attack, except this one was a dark gray rather than a shimmering white. Its dark wings beat behind it, blocking out the sun and casting a shadow over the room. And in its claws- Hueningkai felt sick to his stomach- there was the poor, trembling bunny that Hueningkai had summoned. Slowly, the wolf held it up by the neck, its sharp gaze inspecting every person in the room. He wanted to make sure that everyone was watching. 

The history teacher shot out of his chair. “Dicarius, do a perimeter check. Make sure that there are no students outside and make sure that it stays that way. Everyone else, remember our defense plan. I have a feeling that this is a declaration of-”

The wolf slit the bunny’s throat. The window prevented any of them from hearing the cries of the poor spirit as it thrashed on the ground, but somehow the sight of its silent screams felt much, much worse. 

Immediately everyone in the room jumped to their feet, talking over each other as they hurried outside the room. Hueningkai trailed helplessly after them, his stomach churning with nerves and adrenaline. Finally he caught the sleeve of the history teacher, pulling until he had his attention.

“What do I do?” Hueningkai hated the way his voice shook, quickly trying to put on the bravest face that he could.

The history teacher looked down at him, something almost akin to pity in his eyes. “Be prepared for things to get messy. We knew that the battle was going to be soon- looks like it’s happening right now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all i feel so guilty for killing that bunny i feel like i've committed a crime pls help
> 
> i swear this is almost the end of whatever this dante plotline is i'm really making it up as i go
> 
> and the taegyu slowest burn ever will also be over soon dw- yeonbin is absent rn, my bad
> 
> anyway thank you for reading! comments and kudos are appreciated <3


	12. eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is late i'm sorry and i haven't read it over at ALL so i apologize in advance

Hueningkai rushed outside, nauseous with nerves and fear. The stream of teachers ahead of him seemed quite the opposite- if they were scared, they didn’t show it. They all immediately rushed into the dark cloud of spirits waiting for them, already swinging. Hueningkai gaped as he watched even the seemingly harmless teachers fight back against the spirits with incredible swiftness and skill. It looked like all of the adults had a heightened amount of speed and strength. Hueningkai hadn’t seen much of their fighting at the ball, but now it was right in front of him- and it was quite amazing. 

A dark spirit suddenly flew right by Kai, making him drop to the ground in order to avoid it. On second thought, maybe amazing wasn’t the right word to describe the current situation. Even with all of their inhuman abilities, Hueningkai wasn’t sure if the teachers would be able to pull a win out of this fight. The dark spirits had shifted to all be as big as they possibly could be, taking the form of the most vicious of animals. It was difficult to injure them, and even if they did go down they would always go down fighting. Like Dicarius had said, they were unpredictable. And that made them dangerous.

Speaking of Dicarius, he and the history t- Grim Reaper now, Huneingkai supposed- were leading the battle. They swiped through dark spirits like they were nothing. The Grim Reaper slashed his scythe clean through the neck of a lion shaped spirit, and Hueningkai shuddered. 

“Hueningkai!” The said boy looked up to see the Grim Reaper staring at him. The spirits were coming faster now, not letting him stop fighting for a minute. “You know what to do.” And then the dark spirits swarmed him, forcing him to stop talking. 

Hueningkai stood frozen. He noticed a couple of the dark spirits begin to eye him and his eyes quickly widened with fear. Glancing around, he dashed over to a tree and sufficiently hid himself behind it, letting himself calm his erratic breathing. The sounds of the fight could still be heard clearly behind him, and his stomach churned with guilt.  _ Here I am, hiding like a coward. _ But he had to be alone in order to do what he needed to do.

Hueningkai closed his eyes, shutting out the commotion behind him. He searched around the forest for the light spirits. It had been much easier in the quiet of the classroom- now he could feel the dark spirits too, their clouds of dark energy spiraling closer and closer to him. The light spirits didn’t seem to be anywhere nearby. If they were, they were hiding from Kai’s sight. He began to panic- everyone was relying on him, after all- and did the only thing he could think of. Talk. 

_ Uh. Light spirits? It’s me, Hueningkai. You might already know that. But that’s not the point right now, the point is that we’re kind of fighting the dark spirits, and they’re kind of winning? Or at least that’s the direction things seem to be going. I know that it’s a lot to ask that you risk your safety to come help some random school, but we really need it. So… do it out of the good in your heart?  _

No clear response. Hueningkai sighed.  _ Listen, I don’t know why I was the one who was chosen to be special. I didn’t ask for it. But here I am, and now I need to live up to my responsibilities. You helped me that one night of the ball- why you chose to do so I’ll never understand- but can this be the same? The lives of me and my friends and hundreds of other people are in danger. Help us, please. _

Hueningkai slowly opened his eyes. He still had no idea if that had worked, but he had given it all he had. He felt his heart sink as he stared at the still empty grass around him. He tried to reassure himself- the teachers were all well trained, they were prepared for this, they could put up a fight, even without the assistance of the light spirits-

“They’re here!” A voice broke through the chaos of the battle and Hueningkai whipped around in surprise. His jaw dropped at what he saw. Light spirits spread across every inch of the battlefield, their white aura almost blinding. Hueningkai flitted his gaze between them- there was one ripping a dark spirit off a teacher, another pinning a thrashing dark spirit to the ground, a third circling a group of dark spirits with a sinister smile on its face. Hueningkai wasn’t sure if it was the positive energy radiating off of the light spirits or the situation itself, but he felt giddy with hope. They would be okay, they had to be. Good would always prevail over evil.

The entire mood of the battle changed. All the teachers moved with a newfound sense of confidence, the worries disappearing off of their faces until it looked like they were fighting with nothing but muscle memory. The dark spirits shrunk back into groups, looking at their opponents with bared teeth and hostile eyes. The sun seemed to shine a little brighter, the wind reduced to nothing but a gentle breeze, and Hueningkai swore he even saw the trees straighten up a little taller.

Hueningkai felt almost drawn to the battle. He hadn’t even noticed that he was slowly inching closer to the act, step by step. There was something artistic about the fighting now- if you had taken a photograph at any given point in time it could have been hung in a museum- and Hueningkai wanted to experience it for himself, right in the thick of it rather than the sidelines. He was so close now- he could hear the swish of the Grim Reaper’s scythe. 

**Don’t back down, dammit!**

Hueningkai stopped in his tracks. There was another voice in his head. But it was different from those of the light spirits, and it had come unprompted. Last time he had to be touching the light spirit in order to hear its voice. But this one had just popped into his brain with no warning. 

**How on earth did these losers convince the light spirits to go into battle?**

Hueningkai’s eyes widened. The voice was talking about the light spirits. The voice in his head was a dark spirit. Hueningkai could communicate with dark spirits. He looked around, startled, and latched onto a fight between a light spirit and two dark spirits that was happening right in front of him. 

**Weren’t expecting this, were you?** One of the dark spirits lunged at the light spirits, but it didn’t flinch.

_ Wrong. We’ve been watching you for months. _

There was something resembling a scoff in Hueningkai’s head. 

**But you were too lazy to drive us out?**

_ Wrong again. We were just waiting for the right moment. This battle had to happen right here, right now, with these people. _

**What the hell’s that supposed to mean?**

_ I don’t think your limited mental capacity is equipped to understand _ .

The conversation quickly escalated into fighting, and Hueningkai quickly turned away. He scanned the rest of the fight, observing all of the exchanges between the spirits. The more he looked, the more he realized that he could hear  _ everything. _ Every single word of these spirits' conversations and thoughts was wired directly into Hueningkai’s brain. He tried to tune it out as best as he could, but it only seemed to grow louder the more he attempted to push it all out. It consumed every inch of his thoughts until he could barely even discern where he was. His vision went hazy, his real life hearing became muffled, anhis knees went weak as he crumpled to the ground. It was all so much at once. He pressed his hands to his ears, curling onto his side as he prayed for the voices to be shut out.  _ Please,  _ he begged, not even sure who he was talking to.  _ Make it all go away. _

⋯

Taehyun sped through the halls, ignoring the burning in his legs from the countless stairs that he had just raced up and down. His eyes were still red and raw from crying, but maybe raw is what he needed right now. If he could show Beomgyu his raw emotion, maybe he’d finally understand why Taehyun was so difficult. Maybe he could fix this screwed up situation.

But the hope in his expression was slowly dying as he looked through yet another set of classrooms without Beomgyu in it. The other boy had simply disappeared. Taehyun stopped walking and sighed. He had checked almost every part of the school, where could he have gone? Beomgyu had been upset when he stormed out, where would he go to find a place of comfort?

Taehyun’s head snapped up. “The tree.” He thought back to one of the early weeks in first year, back when they had been stuck outside trying to get their soul weight down. Beomgyu had been staring at this one tree that was shorter than the rest, the branches thick but low to the ground.  _ Look at that tree, _ he had said to Yeonjun,  _ it would be perfect to climb, wouldn’t it?  _ Taehyun still remembered the way that he had smiled, so innocent and mischievous at the same time.  _ We should make that our new hangout spot. _ And since then, Taehyun had caught Beomgyu there a multitude of times. Sometimes with friends, sometimes by himself, always sitting in the tree and just looking out at the forest.

“He has to be there.” Taehyun rushed back down the hall, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other students. He turned a corner and saw the door in front of him, his heart racing. Okay. He would go outside, find Beomgyu, grab him by the collar and shout ‘I just really like you, okay?’ right in his face.  _ Yeah. Not scary at all. _ Before he could overthink it, Taehyun strode towards the doors, a hand already outstretched to open it. But before he could reach the doorway, there was a hand on his arm.

“I’m so sorry, but you’re not allowed to go outside.” Taehyun whipped around to see a teacher standing there with an apologetic smile.

“What? Why?” Taehyun growled. He needed to find Beomgyu  _ now. _ The longer he waited, the more likely it was that the other boy would never talk to him again. The thought terrified him. 

“There’s a… predicament in the forest right now.”

“ _ What?”  _ Cold fear washed over Taehyun. The forest. There was something wrong in the forest. Beomgyu was in the forest. Taehyun spun around, pulling his arm from the other’s grasp and sprinting over to the door.

“Hey! It’s locked, you can’t get out.” The teacher called after him, already walking over to bring him away from the door.

Taehyun pulled on the door handle, feeling more panicked as it did nothing but rattle helplessly. He could hear a few cries and crashes coming from the forest, but the range of sight outside the window was too small for him to see. Eyes darting around, he realized that he couldn’t see Beomgyu’s tree either. 

“My friend, he’s out there, I have to-” Taehyun resorted to banging on the door. “Hello? Can anyone hear me? My friend, Beomgyu, Choi Beomgyu, can you please just go make sure he’s alright?” Taehyun knew that there was no one to liste, but the words still tumbled out.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to step away from the door. We’re not supposed to be near the exits, just in case.”

“Just in case?” Taehyun spun to face the teacher. “ _ Just in case? _ Beomgyu is out there, all alone, caught in this ‘predicament’ you refuse to tell me about, and I’m just supposed to stop worrying about him because it puts me in some sort of slight danger?”

The teacher blinked, clearly overwhelmed. “You’re supposed to report to your designated homeroom until we tell you that it is safe. I’m sure that your friend will be okay.”

“You don’t know that!” Taehyun dragged a hand through his hair. The memories came back to him. Beomgyu’s face contorted in pain as Taehyun kneeled above him, unable to do anything but cry helplessly as he watched Beomgyu suffer. Beomgyu had gotten hurt because he was trying to save Taehyun, and Taehyun had never quite let go of the guilt. And yet here he was again, letting Beomgyu get hurt for the second time. 

Tears pricked at his eyes now. “I have to find him. No matter what.” He moved to go back down the hallway but instead ran right into the teacher’s chest. “Really? ”

“No students are permitted to go outside, no matter what the circumstances. Now, if you would just report to your designated homeroom-”

Taehyun gritted his teeth. “Say that one more time and I swear I’ll-”

“Taehyun? What are you doing?” And the storm inside Taehyun’s mind cleared into a beautiful blue sky.

Taehyun was hugging Beomgyu before he had even registered that it was his voice speaking, the warmth of Beomgyu’s arms curling around him melting his fear into nothing but pure relief. He buried his face into Beomgyu’s neck, closing his eyes and shutting out everything else except Beomgyu- his scent, his face, the feeling of his skin against Taehyun’s cheek. “You’re okay.” He faintly noticed the other boy’s pulse beginning to speed up and pressed a smile into his neck.

Beomgyu was still alarmed, however, even as he hesitantly returned the embrace. “Taehyun?” He asked softly. What’s wrong?”

Taehyun felt his face flush and kept himself hidden, hooking his chin over Beomgyu’s shoulder. “There’s something going on outside. I was looking for you, and I thought you might be out there… I got scared.” 

Beomgyu stiffened. “You were looking for me?” 

Taehyun nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about someth-”

“Well, there’s no need to worry about me, I’m doing great.” Beomgyu flashed Taehyun a smile, but there was no light inside his eyes. He pulled his arms away from Taehyun’s sides, shoving his hands into his pockets, despite Taehyun’s hands still chasing his. 

Taehyun began to panic. “No, that’s- that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about-”

Beomgyu furrowed his brow in a half hearted attempt at confusion. “I don’t think there’s anything we need to talk about. We’re fine, right?” He drifted away from Taehyun, slipping out of his fingers. 

Taehyun grabbed him before he could get too far. “Don’t play dumb with me,” he growled, pulling Beomgyu aside until they were out of the public eye.

As soon as they were alone Beomgyu finally broke, running a hand over his face and gripping at his hair. “What do you want me to say, Taehyun?” The sharpness in his voice startled Taehyun. “Do I really need to spell it out for you? I’ve been hinting at my feelings from the first day I met you, I’ve been working little by little to get you to finally understand, and yet you never responded to it with anything but rejection. I’m tired of being rejected. I may spend the rest of my time pining over you, but I can’t keep doing this up and down does he like me does he like me not shit. And my intuition is right, isn’t it? You don’t like me. At least, not in the way I do. What, am I just a pretty face? A toy? Was it fun, making me go to the world’s end to get your attention?”

This was a side of Beomgyu that Taehyun had never seen before, and it rendered him speechless. “I- I-”

Beomgyu scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. “That’s what I thought.” He took a few steps backward. “All that time. Wasted,” he murmured, mostly to himself. He was walking away now, a hardness passing over his face. Taehyun’s throat closed up at the sight. Beomgyu, the definition of human sunshine, the only person who could flip Taehyun’s mood in less than a minute, the person who had forced his way into Taehyun’s life and turned his entire world upside down. And he was letting him go. He lost him.  _ Do something, you idiot! Anything! Honestly, you’re just standing there like a fool, can you at least close your mouth or try to look less dumbfounded- _

Taehyun kissed him. He had practically thrown himself into Beomgyu’s arms, his arms around the other’s neck, his lips already moving as he kissed Beomgyu fiercely. He had no idea what he was doing, Taehyun doubted that he had gotten much practice in his previous life, and he was pretty sure that there were still a few other students who were present for this whole exchange.

And yet it felt oddly… easy. Taehyun had always been taught to work for everything, that nothing in life came without a price, that talent was built, not born, that he could reach whatever heights he desired as long as he put hours and hours into working towards it. But this, being with Beomgyu, showing his feelings, it felt as natural as breathing. So Taehyun let himself give in, melting into the kiss, shoving away his worried thoughts until he could do nothing but feel. Feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins and roaring through his ears. Feel the butterflies in his stomach, making his stomach twist and turn but in the best way he could imagine.

But the moment couldn’t last forever. Eventually they had to pull away to breathe, and now it was Beomgyu’s turn to be speechless, his pink lips parted in disbelief. Luckily Taehyun had plenty to say.

“Choi Beomgyu, I’ve liked you for ages. I’d be a heartless dumbass if I managed to resist your charms, your personality, your kind words and touches. Believe me when I say that I’m just as affected by you as you are by me. I know that I’ve chosen to run away from my feelings one too many times, and I’m sorry. But I won’t run away anymore. Dating someone that you know you might never see again seems hopeless, but I’m willing to risk it for you. It’s worth it. You’re worth it.” Taehyun saw Beomgyu’s eyes begin to fill with tears. “I’m so sorry that I ever hurt you.” He cupped Beomgyu’s cheeks and pressed a kiss to his ear. “I’m sorry.” He whispered. “Don’t be mad.” A second kiss. “I’ll make it up to you.” Another. “Everyday, starting now.” 

Beomgyu laughed, swallowing hard as he tried to stop his tears from falling. “You are a dumbass if you think that I could ever be mad at you.” He traced a hand down Taehyun’s face, sending a shiver down the other boy’s spine. “The minute I saw you again today I knew that there was no getting over you, no matter how much pain you caused me. I’m completely and utterly at your will. All yours.” Beomgyu pulled Taehyun closer by the waist, the roughness from earlier coming back. “And now you’re mine.” Their lips met again, a little more wanting, a little more addictive. 

Taehyun groaned against Beomgyu’s lips. “Wait, you’re not going to say something stupid like-”

“You may be a dumbass, but you’re  _ my  _ dumbass.”

“Oh my god.”

⋯

Back outside, Hueningkai was still trying to get the voices in his head under control. It was like tuning a radio- right now everything was static, giving him a giant headache, but as long as he focused on one individual spirit the other voices became background noise. But it was just so hard to think when everything was so loud. 

**I thought that light spirits weren’t supposed to hurt anyone** .

There. That was a distinctive voice, louder than the rest. Hueningkai immediately latched onto it, letting out a sigh of relief as the chaos in his head quieted down. He scanned the battle to see which dark spirit was talking. 

**Can you really live with the guilt of taking my life?**

Hueningkai traced the voice to a small, snake-like dark spirit that was being pinned to the ground by a larger light spirit. The larger spirit tightened its grip on the other body.

_ I’ll spare you if you give in. _

The dark spirit wasn’t even fighting back anymore, and yet it seemed oddly calm.

**Hmm… no, I’m good. Go ahead, kill me.**

Hueningkai winced at the harshness of the words. The light spirit seemed caught off guard too, hesitating and loosening its grip. The dark spirit took this moment of weakness to break free, diving for the nearest faculty member and sinking its teeth into her ankle. She screamed and crumpled to the ground, someone already rushing over to catch her. The light spirit grabbed the snake again and crushed its neck, effectively killing it. Hueningkai had to look away.

As he looked around the clearing, he watched the same situation play out over and over again. A light spirit, having taken control over a dark spirit but unable to permanently harm it. The dark spirit then fighting back and managing to hurt someone. The dark spirit being either seriously hurt or killed immediately after. 

_ They’re not backing down, even when that means risking their lives,  _ Hueningkai realized.  _ How many more people will be hurt before they surrender?  _

Hueningaki watched in panic as more and more teachers fell, the dark spirits grinning in satisfaction even as they themselves were whisked away. Regardless of whether they won this fight or not, the school would suffer great losses if the battle didn’t stop soon.

**Who’s the kid?**

Hueningkai’s head snapped over to see two dark spirits prowling towards him. They looked like twin hyenas, their jaws already bared to show their teeth.

**He’s been sitting there, crying like a baby this whole time. Too distracting.**

**Should we take care of him, then?**

Hueningkai jumped to his feet and backed away as the hyenas lurked closer, their hysterical laughter ringing in his ears. His foot hit a rock and he tumbled back down to the ground, now scrambling away from the animals. 

“No, no, no,” he murmured, his head spinning.  _ Think, Kai. Do you know how to fight?  _ That was a no.  _ Is there anyone who can help?  _ A quick glance around told him that was hopeless too. Everyone was too immersed in the battle.  _ Wow. Is there anything you do know how to do? _

Talk to spirits. That’s why he was here in the first place, right? And there wasn’t any difference between light and dark spirits besides their appearance, so theoretically he should be able to talk to them too.

So before the hyenas could pounce on him, Hueningkai quickly held up a hand yelled for them to stop. “Wait! Wait,” his loud voice shocked them into stillness, but Hueningkai knew that it would only last a moment. “Please, just hear me out.”

The hyenas cocked their heads in unison. **This mortal speaks our language? Interesting.**

Hueningkai nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, very interesting, right? Wouldn’t it be so fun to listen to me, a mortal, try and beg for my life? Then you can do whatever you want to me.” 

The hyenas looked at each other in a silent conversation before turning back to him.  **Go ahead. Be as dramatic as possible.**

Hueningkai breathed out a sigh of relief. He slowly got to his feet, trying to stall time as he struggled for what to say. Actually begging for his life would get him nowhere, he knew that. The dark spirits had no empathy or mercy for people like him. He needed to catch them off guard, make them vulnerable. And in the process of doing so he could hopefully save his own life and maybe, just maybe, help out some of the other people fighting as well. 

But he had to start out with something that was entertaining enough for these hyenas, or else they would see right through him. “Please don’t kill me! I still have one more year left at this school before I can go back to my old life. I have friends, family, so many people that I’ve missed terribly since I’ve died. And if you kill me I’ll never be able to see them again. That would be awful.” Hueningkai saw the light in the hyenas’ eyes.  _ Good.  _ He’d made them feel powerful, and now they were intrigued. They wanted him to keep going. 

“The thing is, I don’t even remember my friends or family. Well, I do have one memory of my brother. We were riding our bikes and we both fell off. My parents totally pampered him and ignored me. I guess that was a pattern in my life, always being the second best. The second choice.” The hyenas were antsy now, so Hueningkai quickly threw in one more thing to satisfy them. “I was always the weaker brother. So helpless.” But the hyenas still looked slightly uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, not bored. 

A realization began to dawn on Hueningkai. They weren’t upset that Hueningkai had stopped the pathetic begging for his life. They were uneasy because what he had said hit too close to home. Dicarius had said that the dark spirits were rebelling because they were jealous of the treatment the light spirits got. There wasn’t a great reason as to why they had to be the evil species, they just were. The same way Hueningkai felt about being second string to his brother. 

He immediately launched into another ramble. “I was second to my brother in everything I did, even in the early years of my childhood.” He had no idea if this was actually true, of course. He still couldn’t remember his past life. But if he could make up a story that would tug at these dark spirits’ heartstrings in just the right way, maybe he could get to them. “At first I tried to become just like him, so my parents would treat me the same. I worked as hard as I could, improved as much as I could, to the point where my teachers and mentors were praising me just as much as they praised my brother. But that praise just went through one ear and out the other. The only validation that really mattered was my family’s. And even after all of my hard work, my parents still saw me as the lesser child, the afterthought.”

“And so then I gave up. I would never please them, so why spend all my time trying? I let myself play the role of my brother’s shadow. It was no longer a lie that my parents told, it was true. I was second best. I let myself become what they thought I was.” Hueningkai felt the back of his neck prickle, and suddenly realized that there were more people listening than just those two hyenas. More dark spirits had heard him and stopped their fighting, intrigued. The pressure was certainly on.

“It’s like an endless cycle. They tell me that I’m second best, and I believe it and become just that. It starts to affect every part of your life.” Hueningkai thought of a certain purple haired boy and a botched confession. “Makes you wonder if it’s possible to break out of that cycle.” He heard a sound of something resembling agreement coming from one of the dark spirits, and he felt giddy with disbelief. “But I’m telling you, you can. The problem with me was that I relied on their validation only. Sure, it’s fine to want their approval, but I refused to accept anyone’s praise but theirs. And as a result I became too unforgiving on myself, and that’s followed me ever since. But I realized that I don’t need them to tell me that I’m good enough. That should be up to me and only me.”

Hueningkai took a breath, bracing himself for the risk he was about to take. “You don’t need to be fighting these teachers or these light spirits. They didn’t ask for this any more than you did. I know that you’re jealous, I understand that. But there’s no need for jealousy if you learn to be grateful for what you do have. Who cares about a stupid label? I think you guys are cool. As long as you stop hurting people, that is. So do the right thing and leave these innocent people alone.”

The silence was deafening. Everyone in the clearing, staring at Hueningkai. Even the Grim Reaper was looking at him with an expression of amazement and respect. The dark spirits looked uncomfortable, all shifting around and whispering to each other. Finally, one stepped forward from the rest, a giant lion with a dragon’s wings.

**You sure are something, kid.** Hueningkai just swallowed, suddenly afraid.  **You know what? We’ll leave you be. After a stunt like that, I respect you enough to let you live out the rest of your years here in peace. After that, no promises. But it did take some guts to do what you did. Raised some good points.**

The lion glanced around at the other dark spirits and inclined his head towards the forest, away from the school. In an instant the spirits were all moving, racing away from the school at inhuman speeds. A few turned back to give him a glance or a nod. They left just as quickly as they had come. Hueningkai watched them go, stunned. 

And just like that it was over. Medical staff ran around the clearing to tend to the injured. Some teachers went back inside to make sure the students were okay. Others stood above those whose lives were lost, silent. The remaining light spirits all gathered around Hueningkai. 

_ We were right about you, _ One of them said.  _ You are special. _ And then they were retreating back into the forest too. Hueningkai stumbled backwards in a daze, his head spinning. He was the special one. His parents never saw him as anything more than an extra child, but here he was special. He almost wanted to laugh at the irony.  _ Why am I worth more in death than I am in life? _

His back hit someone’s shoulder. “Hueningkai!” He was wrapped in a familiar embrace, the scent of lavender and sweet vanilla filling his nose.  _ Soobin. _

The taller boy was staring at him with a grin on his face, his eyes wide with amazement. “That was you? You can talk to spirits? How come you never told us? I have a million questions. And all that stuff you said out there was so beautiful. I- I just can’t believe it.” Soobin hugged him again. Normally Hueningkai would’ve been panicking to the max at their close proximity, but he felt oddly calm. 

_ Soobin isn’t more than a brother to me,  _ he realized.  _ I only kept wanting him because Yeonjun did too.  _ Yeonjun reminded him too much of his brother, too perfect to beat and too nice to hate. Hueningkai had wanted to beat him so badly that he had made this facade that he was in love with Soobin too. After everything he had just told those dark spirits, Hueningkai knew that spending your whole life trying to be better than someone else was a hopeless game. He made a vow, right then and there, to live the rest of his time for himself and only himself. And that meant falling in love with someone because he, Hueningkai, liked him. 

“I’m friends with a school hero. You’re like a celebrity now,” Soobin explained. “Look at all of your admirers,” he said, gesturing towards the windows. Rows and rows of students stared down at the clearing with wide eyes. Hueningkai felt a smile spread across his face. One doe eyed boy caught his eye, but as soon as Hueningkai made eye contact the other boy flushed and ducked away from the window. Hueningkai grinned, his heart doing a flip in his chest. 

_ Yeah,  _ he thought,  _ I’m ready to fall in love again. _

~end of second year~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooh who is our mystery boy (he's another idol just fyi)
> 
> i know that my timeline is so wack second year lasted for like 2 seconds, it was my least planned out part so it was a bit of a mess. I'm looking forward to the start of third year though! there will hopefully be lots of feelings and character development 
> 
> thank you for reading! comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


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